DENVER -- When Marlins manager Clayton McCullough was asked how he felt about his club’s offensive performance in an 8-4 win over the Rockies at Coors Field on Wednesday night, he said something that could apply to Miami's season overall in 2025.
“I love that we hung in there,” said the first-year skipper. “It wasn’t a great start in the first couple of innings.”
Much like the first couple of months of the 2025 campaign. The Marlins, in fact, were playing the Rockies at home when they hit what you might call rock bottom this year -- a three-game sweep by Colorado, a team that entered that early June series with a record of 9-50.
After defeating the Rockies on Wednesday to win their current series, the Marlins have gone 49-43 since.
Much of that can be attributed to “hanging in there,” especially considering the Marlins were hit hard by injuries this season, with as many as 16 players on the injured list at one point.
Add to that the relative youth of the club -- the average age in Wednesday’s starting lineup, which consisted of seven rookies, was 24 years, 281 days -- and one might imagine, without knowing the club’s actual record, that preseason prognostications of 100 or more losses would be on target.
Instead, the Marlins technically still have the chance to finish the season with a .500 record. (It would take an improbable win streak, of course, but the point remains.)
“We’re a group of guys that are trying [to establish ourselves] at the Major League level for the first time,” said Agustín Ramírez, who drove in three runs, delivering a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning before smashing a two-run home run to left in the eighth. “We’re getting used to that, and we’re going to come back next year stronger.”
As they near the end of a season in which they have exceeded expectations, the Marlins are looking to finish with a flourish. Winning six of their last seven games helps that cause, and a strong finish to 2025 -- nine games remain -- could portend good things in ’26.
“This is a hard game,” said Wednesday’s starting pitcher, Ryan Weathers. “… It’s an extremely hard game. And for [the rookies] to stay in, day-in and day-out -- guys hitting 21 homers [Ramírez] and stealing 10 bags [Jakob Marsee, who stole his 11th on Wednesday], it’s really good. It’s exciting.”
Weathers waited out a 40-minute weather delay before taking the mound in his second start since returning from the injured list. He went four innings, yielding three runs on eight hits while walking two and striking out two on 80 pitches (48 strikes).
While he wasn’t at his sharpest, Weathers saw some silver linings after the rain was gone.
“Everything felt good,” he said. “I might’ve just kind of pitched around the strike zone too much. … Even if you look at the stat line, I gave up the double to [Hunter] Goodman, but everything else was on the ground with the base hits, and you can live with that.”
The Marlins were able to live with it, especially at Coors Field. And especially since the bullpen gave Miami five strong frames after Weathers departed. Lake Bachar (two innings), Ronny Henriquez (one), Calvin Faucher (one) and George Soriano (one) combined to allow three hits, including a ninth-inning solo homer by Mickey Moniak.
Javier Sanoja went 3-for-5 with an RBI double. The other four Marlins runs scored courtesy of RBI singles from Marsee, Liam Hicks and Joey Weimer, as well as a sac fly by Heriberto Hernández.
McCullough, after noting that things didn’t begin so well at the plate, went on to describe how he felt about the remainder of the game. And he might as well have been describing the rest of the season.
“Kind of a slow start,” McCullough said. “But as that game went along, we strung together some high-quality at-bats.”
The 2025 Marlins have weathered a lot of adversity to put themselves in their current position, which is -- at least by win-loss record -- ahead of schedule.
Weathers, who has spent most of the campaign on the IL, can attest.
“You never know what can happen,” he said. “And we just continue for next year.”