PHILADELPHIA — After struggling to cash in all night against their nemesis, Cristopher Sánchez, the Marlins finally put together a potential game-tying rally in the seventh inning Monday night, only for a replay review to cost them a run and potentially a win.
Trailing by three runs in the top of the seventh, Miami loaded the bases on singles by Xavier Edwards and Agustín Ramírez, followed by an Otto Lopez walk. On an 0-2 count from Phillies reliever Jonathan Bowlan, Javier Sanoja laced a ball down the first-base line. First-base umpire Shane Livensparger called it foul, but upon replay review, the ball clearly hit the line and was fair for a double. The ruling was overturned, but only two runs scored, with Livensparger sending Lopez back to third base and Sanoja to second.
With two outs and Lopez running on contact, the play easily could have been a bases-clearing double. Unhappy with the outcome after intervention from MLB’s Replay Center, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough was ejected and the inning ended one batter later as Bowlan struck out Leo Jiménez.
McCullough appeared to be hot even before the incident as rain fell at Citizens Bank Park for more than an hour without play being halted. At one point in the sixth inning, he came out to apparently ask the umpiring crew to provide lefty reliever John King a new rosin bag.
The ejection was McCullough's third of 2026. It came in the opener of a crucial three-game series between the Marlins and a Phillies team that leads them by three games for the National League's final Wild Card spot.