TAMPA—The Marlins’ week-and-a-half long offensive struggle and five-game slide have met an exhilarating, relieving end. They entered Saturday having totaled eleven runs during their latest losing streak and just twelve in the past week. In game two against their in-state rival Rays on Saturday afternoon, they erupted for eleven more, tying a season-high in runs scored.
Both the Marlins and Tampa Bay dug out of four-run deficits in thrilling fashion, culminating in a 10-10 stalemate heading into extra innings, where manager Clayton McCullough’s decision to pinch-hit Heriberto Hernández for the hot-hitting Liam Hicks paid off. Hernández’s run-scoring single ended up being the first game-winning hit of the rookie’s career, but it would’ve been all for not if not for two downright stellar defensive plays from Xavier Edwards up the middle. Rookie Cade Gibson finished things off out of the bullpen, recording his first big league win and sending a sellout Rays crowd home disappointed with a swinging strikeout of Josh Lowe. With the victory, the Fish collected their first since exactly one week ago, now sitting at a 24-38 record.
“That was a real team effort today,” said McCullough. “I think just the resiliency to hang in there when it could have gone the other way early. To fight back and find a way to win, it’s a good day for us.”
Unlike Friday’s game, game two was high intensity from the very beginning.
You’d be hard-pressed not to find an Evan Longoria jersey in every direction you looked, as the greatest player in franchise history ended his 16-year big league career in Tampa. Longoria was honored on the field to thunderous applause and noise as the three-time All-Star threw out the first pitch. Just a half-inning later, all eyes would once again return to the pitcher’s mound, but for all the wrong reasons.
As Marlins starter Ryan Weathers was finishing up his warmup pitches, Nick Fortes released a strike to the top of his starter’s head in an attempt to throw the ball down to second.
Weathers immediately went down, but stayed in the game after being consulted by trainers. It appeared that the scare would fuel Weathers after a quick first, but it quickly became clear that something wasn’t right.
The southpaw ran into trouble in the second and third, allowing a three-run shot to Christopher Morel and forfeiting plenty of baserunners. More worrisome, though, Weathers’ velocity saw a significant drop-off from innings two to three, with his four-seamer topping out around 93 compared to his season average of 97.5.
The 25-year-old’s shortest outing of the season came to a close after three frame for precautionary reasons. The Marlins training staff evaluated his head, not his arm, as theorized.
“Right now we think everything is okay with Ryan,” asserted McCullough. “I just felt like, in that moment with how things were going, and what I was seeing there, that the best thing for him and us was to make a move there.”
With Weathers’ departure and sudden four-run deficit, the burden fell on a struggling Marlins offense to pick up the slack. Miami’s bats hadn’t compiled more than four runs in a game since May 28, but it didn’t take long for the group to make its eagerly-awaited return.
Pedro Guerrero‘s unit exploded for a combined ten runs in the third and fifth, utilizing the gaps, capitalizing with runners in scoring position and making solid contact against Rays right-hander Taj Bradley, who ran into trouble in Miami back in May.
Edwards, Jesús Sánchez, Dane Myers, Connor Norby and Nick Fortes all enjoyed multi-hit efforts. Edwards and Sánchez stood out above the rest, with the former driving in two on a single and double, while the latter provided the biggest swing of the day—a three-run missile to knot the game at four in the third.
Once reliever Mason Montgomery departed, though, Miami cooled, while Tampa Bay’s power-hitters swung the momentum back to the home team.
Four homers from up and down the Rays order between the fourth and seventh chipped away just enough to bring the next-to-last game of the 2025 Citrus Series to the aforementioned 10-10 tie.
After Hernández pushed Miami back ahead in the top of the 10th, Edwards made the plays of the day to lock down a win against his former organization.
With zero outs, Edwards laid out on a play to his left, knocking down the ball and staying with it before recording an out at first on his backside. That was just the beginning.
Edwards’ encore was as game-saving as it gets, with the new second baseman getting to a 97.7 mph rope up the middle, preliminary to a stunning, pinpoint jump throw to nab ex-Marlin farmhand Kameron Misner at the plate.
For Edwards, who was visibly upset even hours after his ejection the day before, Saturday’s win is just what his club needed.
“Great, great to bounce back…We’re all excited to win,” said Edwards with a smile. “We were just talking about, we don’t even know how we would have reacted had we not won that game, so definitely glad to come on the winning side and looking forward to taking the series tomorrow.”
Right in the middle of his postgame presser, McCullough publicized that Anthony Veneziano would be the opener for Sunday’s bullpen game and series finale at 12:10. Veneziano has starting experience, most recently in Triple-A Omaha a season ago, but none in MLB. Miami’s mission to secure their first season victory over their friends to the northwest will not be easy, as Drew Rasmussen is set to go opposite Veneziano. The veteran’s 2.14 ERA would sit ninth-best in all of baseball if qualified.
