Marlins stumble in 8th inning in loss to Phillies
MIAMI (AP) -- Tom Koehler bounced back from his worst outing of the season with his best one of the year.
Unfortunately for Koehler, it didn't work out very well for the Miami Marlins.
Koehler pitched seven innings of one-run ball in Miami's 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night.
"Honestly just tried to do everything that I had been doing and tried to get back to attacking the zone, getting into a good rhythm, work the game plan, and not try to get four outs with one pitch," Koehler said.
The right-hander allowed two hits and struck out a season-high eight. He was in line for the win when he exited with a 3-1 lead.
"Koehler pitched so well," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "That's the best I've seen him throw."
Odubel Herrera scored the go-ahead run for Philadelphia on first baseman Chris Johnson's error in the Phillies' three-run eighth inning. David Lough started the winning rally with a leadoff walk before Andres Blanco doubled in a 12-pitch at-bat against Kyle Barraclough.
"I got lucky I think, a lot of foul balls, good pitches," Blanco said. "He threw a lot of good ones and I was about to throw my bat, foul it off and stay alive. When you're fouling off that many pitches you pass a message. Everybody wants to do it, too. Everybody tried to keep it going. And finally, we got the run that we really needed."
Brett Oberholtzer (2-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win. Jeanmar Gomez tossed a perfect ninth for his 10th save in 11 chances.
Marcell Ozuna and Justin Bour homered for Miami, which had won four in a row.
"Coming in and knowing this team is as hot as anybody in baseball, the way they swung the bat (Friday) night it was a little daunting to win this game, the way the guys battled back," Mackanin said.
Herrera and Cesar Hernandez hit consecutive RBI singles off Craig Breslow (0-2) with one out in the eighth inning, tying it at 3.
Bryan Morris relieved Breslow and got Maikel Franco to bounce into what appeared to be an inning-ending double play, but Johnson dropped the throw at first and Herrera scampered home to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead.
"Just dropped it," Johnson said. "Just messed up and lost the game for us."
Philadelphia's Jeremy Hellickson allowed three runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Ozuna connected for his sixth homer in the second inning. Ryan Howard's sacrifice fly tied it at 1 before Bour's drive in the fourth put Miami in front again.
Koehler was handed a two-run cushion when Christian Yelich singled, stole second, and scored on Ozuna's single in the sixth.
BARRACLOUGH'S NIGHT
Barraclough entered with 10 2/3 scoreless innings on the season, but his strong start was stopped by Philadelphia's rally in the eighth.
"He's been a guy that we've counted on. He's been great," manager Don Mattingly said. "I think the at-bat with Blanco you can tell that he looked like he was kind of spent there throwing a lot of pitches."
HERRERA AGAIN
Herrera has reached base safely in nine consecutive games against the Marlins and 20 of 21 career games. He is hitting .385 (25 of 65) in his career against Miami.
UP NEXT
Phillies: Aaron Nola (2-2, 2.93 ERA) starts Sunday's series finale. The 22-year-old right-hander is 2-0 with a 0.43 ERA over his past three starts with 21 strikeouts and four walks.
Marlins: LHP Justin Nicolino (2-0, 2.70 ERA) will be making his third start of the season. He allowed four runs in six innings in a 7-4 win over Arizona in his last start.
