Phillies' Bullpen, Jean Segura Deliver Win Over Marlins In 14-Inning Marathon
MIAMI (AP) — Jean Segura was merely trying to get the ball in the air far enough to drive home Andrew McCutchen from third. He did a little better.
Segura's two-run homer off the struggling Wei-Yin Chen in the 14th inning put Philadelphia on top, and the Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 3-1 on Sunday in the longest game of the young season for either team.
"I was trying to battle," Segura said. "He hung a slider."
A few minutes later, the marathon was over.
Scott Kingery had three hits, Cesar Hernandez got his first homer of the season, starter Vince Velasquez had a no-hitter going through 5 2/3 innings and eight Phillies pitchers combined to limit the Marlins to a 5-for-45 day at the plate.
"The bullpen kept us in the game," Segura said. "Huge for us."
Chen (0-1) came on to pitch the 14th, was charged with two runs and his ERA actually dipped from 24.75 to 23.40. Chen — the highest-paid Marlins player this season, making $20 million — has allowed 12 runs over three innings of relief in his last two appearances. He gave up a triple to McCutchen, and Segura connected one batter later.
"He's battling," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Chen. "It's where we're at with him right now. Basically, he's got to get through this."
Miami batters struck out 18 times, tied for the fourth-most in franchise history. Brian Anderson homered for the Marlins, whose 18-strikeout game came one day after an 18-hit effort.
"We just never really got anything going," Mattingly said.
Victor Arano (1-0) pitched the 12th and 13th for Philadelphia, getting all six outs by strikeout. Jose Alvarez worked the 14th, gave up a leadoff single but finished out his first save.
Both teams used eight pitchers. There were 424 pitches in the 4-hour, 38-minute contest.
"The pitching is the story today," Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said.
The Phillies had runners on in each of the last six innings. They stranded a total of eighth between the 9th and 13th, as Marlins relievers kept the game tied. They even got away with walking Segura twice in extra innings with Bryce Harper in the on-deck circle, retiring the Philadelphia slugger in both of those instances.
Philadelphia got runners into scoring position in each of the first three innings, but couldn't break through against Miami starter Jose Urena until Hernandez hit a two-out homer in the fourth for a 1-0 lead.
That was the lone big mistake for Urena, who allowed seven hits, struck out seven and walked none in seven innings. His ERA fell from 9.22 to 6.53.
Velasquez allowed two hits, walked three and struck out four against a Marlins lineup that came in batting .230 on the season and had three starters entering the day under .200.
"We understand that Vince is definitely a work in progress," Kapler said. "He has two quality outings under his belt at this point. We feel good about those."
The lone run against Velasquez was Anderson's homer that tied the game at 1-1. That's the way it stayed for the next 2 hours, 51 minutes — until Segura connected.
"He did a good job hitting that pitch," Chen said through a translator. "It really wasn't that bad a location."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Phillies: C J.T. Realmuto was given a day off from starting, as was 3B Maikel Franco. Both came on as pinch-hitters.
Marlins: C Jorge Alfaro was out of the lineup after tweaking a chest muscle on Saturday. He's expected to start Monday.
HOT SHOT
Urena dodged a scare in the first inning, when Harper hit a comeback liner right at him. Urena managed to deflect the ball and Harper was retired in what became a 1-6-3 groundout.
SERIES NOTE
The Phillies lost all three of their series in Miami last season, dropping two of three games each time. They won this series 2-1.
FOUR-LEGGED FANS
The Marlins got their second-biggest home crowd this season, with 15,238 humans in attendance. Also present: 174 dogs for "Bark at the Park" day.
UP NEXT
Phillies: RHP Aaron Nola (1-0, 6.46) starts Monday against RHP Noah Snydergaard (1-1, 4.74) and the New York Mets.
Marlins: RHP Trevor Richards (0-1, 2.00) gets the ball Monday against RHP Yu Darvish (0-2, 7.50) and the Chicago Cubs.
(Copyright 2019 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
