MIAMI _ For five seasons, J.T. Realmuto played his home games at Marlins Park. But as he sat in the visiting dugout and looked out at the field Friday, he barely recognized the place.
The lime-green wall that once ringed the outfield has been replaced by a less gaudy navy-blue fence. And the seven-story home-run sculpture that stood in left-center field since the day the ballpark opened in 2013? It's gone, too, dismantled and sent away, just like all of the Marlins' best players since Realmuto made his major league debut in 2015.
Some things haven't changed, though. The Marlins are still the worst team in the National League East, the crowds are still thin, and based on the absence of a reaction to Realmuto before his first at-bat in the first inning, apathy is still high. But after back-to-back losses this week, the Phillies were all too happy to prey on the weaklings in the division with a business-like, 9-1 romp in the opener of a three-game series.
Jake Arrieta delivered seven strong innings, his third solid performance in as many starts, en route to his 100th career victory before an announced crowd of 9,322. And the high-octane offense operated with assembly-line efficiency en route to notching 14 hits and three walks.
The Phillies strung together six consecutive one-out hits, only two for extra bases, in a five-run third inning against touted Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara. Andrew McCutchen tacked on a three-run homer in the eighth inning against reliever Austin Brice. And the top five hitters in the order _ McCutchen, Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and Realmuto _ combined to go 11 for 22 with six RBIs and seven runs scored.
Alcantara had the best start of his brief career last season against the Phillies, shutting them out for seven innings on Sept. 5 at Marlins Park. By then, though, the Phillies were in full-on collapse mode, and the top half of their lineup that day was Carlos Santana, Justin Bour, Asdrubal Cabrera, Hoskins and Nick Williams, not exactly comparable to the group that Alcantara faced on Friday night.
McCutchen and Segura were the tone-setters, especially in the big third inning. After slashing a single to right field, McCutchen made a smart read with the play in front of him and went first to third on Segura's single to left field.
Segura has flown largely under the radar during the Phillies' 8-4 start. But he already has six games with at least two hits and has reached base in all but one game.
Harper followed Segura in the third inning with an RBI single before Hoskins cranked an RBI double, Realmuto lined an RBI single and Odubel Herrera blooped a two-run single that fell between backpedaling Marlins second baseman Starlin Castro and onrushing right fielder Austin Dean, neither of whom saw fit to take charge on the play.
It was a cathartic inning for the Phillies after what went down this week at Citizens Bank Park. They gave up nine unanswered runs on Tuesday night in a 10-inning, 10-6 loss to the Nationals, then got trounced 15-1 on Wednesday night. And they opened Friday night's game by loading the bases with nobody out and failing to score.
But with a sizable lead, the Phillies could exhale. Arrieta mostly cruised. He didn't allow a runner to advance beyond second base until the seventh inning and retired 10 of 11 batters at one point.
Phillies starters have completed seven innings in only three of 12 games. Arrieta has done it twice.
