MIAMI – The last time Miami had a .500 record (8-8), on April 15, Xavier Edwards was the shortstop and Otto Lopez was the second baseman. Matt Mervis led the club in homers. Right-hander Connor Gillispie started on the mound, and Jesús Sánchez manned center field.
Ninety-four games later, the Marlins returned to .500 (55-55) by sweeping the Yankees for the first time in franchise history with Sunday afternoon’s 7-3 victory in front of 34,601. Right-hander Edward Cabrera recorded a quality start, while All-Star Kyle Stowers went deep and drove in a game-high four runs.
The weekend crowd of 101,545 set a new three-game attendance record at loanDepot park, which opened in 2012.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, the last Major League team to go from 16 or more games under .500 to a .500 record was the 2014 Rays.
Now comes the next hurdle: Only one team in MLB history has made the postseason after being 16-plus games under .500 at any point of a season. The 1914 Boston Braves started out 12-28 but finished with a 94-59 record and swept the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series.
The Marlins, who are six games back of the Padres for the final National League Wild Card spot, went into Sunday with a 1.2% chance of reaching the playoffs, per FanGraphs.
“Win tomorrow?” Stowers said of what’s next. “Do everything we can to win tomorrow. I don't know. I guess, take care of what you can take care of. Obviously, just keep trying to win series, keep doing everything we need to control day to day. And then, keep it small, incremental steps.
“What are we six, 5 1/2 back? You don't have to make that ground up in one day. Just keep playing good baseball.”
Since the Marlins fell a season-high 16 games below .500 on June 11, they have gone 30-14 – tied with the Brewers for the most wins in MLB. The last time the franchise had this good of a stretch was during the 2003 World Series run.
Cabrera, who was the subject of trade rumors ahead of Thursday’s Deadline, has been a big reason for this club’s turnaround. He surrendered just a leadoff homer to Trent Grisham over his six innings, improving his ERA to 2.32 since May 4.
Two years ago, when the Marlins were in the middle of a postseason chase, they optioned Cabrera to Triple-A Jacksonville due to his inability to throw strikes.
“It gets me really happy, very excited being around my teammates, being here, working really hard to pursue that goal,” Cabrera said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “And just doing it with all of them, it means a lot.”
Miami’s lineup, which featured six rookies, provided Cabrera with enough run support.
In the second inning following back-to-back walks by righty Luis Gil, Troy Johnston doubled in a run for his first career RBI, Xavier Edwards produced an RBI single and Stowers tacked on a sacrifice fly.
Breakout star Stowers struck again with a three-run homer in the fourth to make it a 6-1 advantage. His 25th homer of the season was his first vs. a lefty.
Getting back to .500 has been accomplished, but defying the odds doesn’t end here.
Here’s a look at the Marlins’ remaining schedule over the final 52 games:
3 vs. American League West-leading Astros
5 vs. Braves
3 at AL Wild Card hopeful Guardians
3 at Red Sox (AL WC)
3 vs. Cardinals
3 vs. AL East-leading Blue Jays
3 vs. Braves
4 at NL East-leading Mets
3 at Nationals
3 vs. Phillies (NL WC)
4 vs. Nationals
3 vs. AL Central-leading Tigers
3 at Rockies
3 at AL WC hopeful Rangers
3 at Phillies
3 vs. Mets
“We've been on a steady climb, slow climb, at times, but I think we just got so hyper-focused on what we needed to do to win games,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “We needed to play better. We needed to pitch better. Offensively, we needed to come out with more consistency with our approach from day to day, and certainly on the defensive end, to play a much cleaner brand of baseball.
“And we did that, and we started doing it series to series, and won a lot of games [that] maybe early in the season we weren't able to finish off. Very proud of how we've been able to do it, and to get back to .500, that's great. It took a lot of work to get there, and I think now we just don't look back. You just keep moving forward. And we have another tough opponent coming in here, starting tomorrow. Enjoy this for a little while, and then on to getting ready for Houston.”