PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Miami Marlins are proving themselves to be a gigantic nuisance to the floundering Phillies.
Take note: In 2019, the Marlins lost 105 games and were the worst team in the National League, but they were 10-9 against the Phillies. In 2020, they emerged from the depths of failure to make the postseason as the second-place team in the National League East, going 7-3 against the Phils, who came within one game of ending a playoff drought.
It gets worse.
Since the start of the 2019 season, heading into Tuesday night's action, the Phillies are 13-20 against Miami.
Many would argue that's unacceptable, comparing the Phillies' payroll to the Marlins'.
"The Marlins know they're a better team than the Phillies, and the Phillies don't think they're better than the Marlins. That's the bottom line," former Phils first baseman John Kruk said on NBC Sports Philadelphia's "Phillies Postgame Live" after Monday's 9-6 loss at loanDepot park.
That is quite an observation from Kruk — a three-time Phillies All-Star in the early '90s.
"They know they're better than the Phillies, and they play like they're better than the Phillies. And they wait for the Phillies to make mistakes, and they do, and then they capitalize."
That's what the Marlins did in Monday's opener — capitalizing on the Phils' pitching and defensive mistakes — denying them consecutive wins.
"They're a good, scrappy team," Phillies starting pitcher Zach Eflin said of the 23-24 Marlins, who jumped the 23-25 Phillies for third in the National League East. "They handle mistakes pretty well — mistakes as in pitches that we leave off the plate. They're a good ball club, but we need to take care of business."
Eflin said the Phillies are lacking momentum, adding they "need to get back on the winning train."
The Phillies haven't won consecutive games since May 12. Before that, they went from April 6 to May 3 without two wins in a row.
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The Phillies are fortunate, manager Joe Girardi acknowledged over the weekend. If they Phils weren't in the National League East, they'd be in trouble. As of Tuesday morning, the New York Mets lead the division with a 21-20 record. Of the six division leaders in Major League Baseball, they sport the worst winning percentage. Forty-eight games into the 162-game schedule, at least it's early in the season, right?
"It's not early," Girardi said Monday night. "It's not late, but it's not early. We're in the middle of the season, and we need to play better."
"The Phillies need to remedy this thing quick, because if it wasn't for the Marlins, the Phillies would've been in the postseason last year," Kruk said. "Can the Marlins be the team that keeps them out of the postseason this year? More than likely. They better start beating them."