MIAMI -- Griffin Conine knew that whenever the Marlins snapped their franchise-record 12-game skid, it wouldn’t come easy.
If it were to happen on Monday, they would need to get past longtime foe and National League Cy Young hopeful Zack Wheeler. Entering the series opener, Wheeler had been undefeated in his last 10 starts against Miami dating back to 2022 (5-0 record, 2.87 ERA).
Miami defied the odds, handing Wheeler his shortest start in four years (three innings) and tagging him for five runs -- his most since May 29, 2025.
But a baseball game doesn’t end that early and wins certainly don’t come that easily, especially for a floundering club.
The Marlins saw their three-run lead disappear in the sixth and appeared destined for another heartbreaker -- until some of the late-inning magic fans had grown so accustomed to seeing in 2025 materialized. The Marlins rallied with three runs in the ninth for an 8-7 walk-off victory over the Phillies at loanDepot park.
The win helped the Marlins (53-54) avoid becoming the first Major League team to lose at least 13 in a row since the 2024 White Sox, who dropped 21 straight en route to a Modern Era-record 121 losses.
To put the skid in perspective: Miami entered this streak on July 10 tied with Philadelphia (57-50) for the second and third NL Wild Card spots. The Marlins are now on the outside looking in, pulling within two games of the third Wild Card.
“I think beating a good team like that, coming from behind in the ninth, like that's a playoff-type game right there,” Conine said.
Trailing 7-5 in the ninth, Miami loaded the bases with no outs when Jakob Marsee and Otto Lopez singled and Kyle Stowers was hit by a pitch from All-Star closer Jhoan Duran.
Heriberto Hernández, who took Wheeler deep in the first for his team-leading 15th homer, sent a game-tying single up the middle. Last September in Philadelphia, Hernández slugged a game-tying homer off Duran in the ninth.
“It felt good,” Hernández said in Spanish. “We all had pressure, we were all sad, we all had a lot of feelings. We were all asking ourselves, ‘What was going on? What are we not doing?’ And thank God today we could fight from the first inning to the last and get out of that stretch.”
Following Xavier Edwards’ bunt hit to once again load the bases, Liam Hicks grounded into a forceout at home. With the infield in, Conine lined a two-strike knuckle-curve for the game winner past second baseman Bryson Stott’s glove for the first walk-off hit of his career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Conine became the fifth player since 2000 to record a walk-off hit for a team for whom his father also recorded a walk-off hit.
“After the stretch we've been on, it felt like a September-type game, like with the playoffs looming, which, obviously, that wasn't what it was, but I think just for what we needed right now, that was big,” said Conine, who homered in the second inning.
Over the weekend after yet another tough loss, manager Clayton McCullough foretold that it would take a collective effort to right the ship. Hours before Monday’s comeback, he even jokingly compared himself to Odysseus from “The Odyssey,” wondering what baseball god he had infuriated to take 10 years to find his way home.
The Marlins averaged just 2.5 runs per game (30 total over 12 games) during their losing streak. All but one of those contests were decided by three runs or fewer.
“That's what really good teams do,” McCullough said. “You can't just lean on a couple of individuals. Certainly, we have guys that are very capable of taking over a series, taking over a stretch of games, but ultimately, you're going to need contributions from everywhere on the roster and on both sides of the ball. When we've seen us at our best, that's what we do. So again, it showed up tonight.”
Right-hander Tyler Phillips did his part, allowing just a two-run homer to Bryce Harper over five innings -- after surrendering a season-high eight runs to his former club in Philadelphia on June 16.
Postgame, Phillips admitted he changed his usual routine and went back to the dugout for the seventh inning and turned his cap inside out like he did as a kid for a rally. The club had tried everything to break the skid, from bringing a Jobu bobblehead from the film “Major League” to various outfits.
“It felt wrong to be sitting inside in my recliner just chilling,” Phillips said. “[I] felt like I had to go out there and try to support the boys, try to pick them up however I can. And gosh, man, that was awesome. I know it's one win, right? But that was a big one for us. We needed that. You guys know we were on a tough streak, and we have tried everything, but the emotions were insane. And I felt it from the first inning on.”