PHILADELPHIA _ For the first time in nearly four months, the Miami Marlins are back at .500.
The Marlins swept the Philadelphia Phillies in a doubleheader Tuesday, 12-8 in game one and 7-4 in game two, to improve to 62-62. They have won nine out of their past 11 games and are 45-32 since May 28, good for a top-five winning percentage in the majors in that time.
With just under six weeks to go, Miami is six games back of a National League wild-card spot.
This run erases the hole the Marlins put themselves in with a 5-20 run in late April through most of May, and there is a coincidental symmetry to how they did it.
The Marlins' spiral began, sort of, on April 25. But they didn't play that day. They were in Philly and it rained all night, so the game was rescheduled for the next time the Marlins came back.
When the weather cleared and play resumed, the Marlins lost to the Phillies in back-to-back games, a sweep at the hands of a team that has comfortably ranked as one of the worst _ if not the worst _ in the majors all season. In between those two games, beloved Spanish-language radio broadcaster Felo Ramirez was hospitalized after falling while getting off the team bus.
The Marlins left Philly at .500, 10-10, and won five games in four weeks.
Flash forward to now. The Marlins are back in Philadelphia for the first time since their collective slump began. They're playing as well now as they have at any point this year. On Tuesday, though, they woke up to the news that Ramirez died Monday night at age 94, having never fully recovered from his fall.
Miami picked up the opener Tuesday to get within a game of .500, then took game two _ the rescheduled rainout from April _ to get even.
In the nightcap, the Marlins jumped out with three runs in each of the first two innings, mostly via home runs from Marcell Ozuna (two-run shot to left-center) and Christian Yelich (three-run shot to right-center). Yelich tied a career-high for RBIs in a game with four in those two innings alone.
But then the Miami offense went quiet, adding a lone extra run the rest of the way.
Right-hander Jose Urena allowed three runs on five hits (two home runs) in five innings. It would have been worse if not for Yelich's leaping homer-robbing catch on Nick Williams' fly ball to center to end the fifth.
J.T. Realmuto, playing first base after catching the first game, went 3 for 4 with a double.
Right-hander Kyle Barraclough pitched two scoreless innings to bridge the game to closer Brad Ziegler, who secured the win with a seventh save in as many opportunities since being named closer.
The game ended in a full-fledged thunderstorm, rain falling at Citizens Bank Park and lightning flashing over the Philadelphia skyline in the distance.
