Seventh-inning rally clinches Marlins’ series sweep against Orioles in wild finale

How to describe what was ultimately a wild series finale Thursday between the Miami Marlins and the Baltimore Orioles?

Here are the highlights from Camden Yards:

Four Marlins leads erased, all but one by Baltimore home runs.

Twenty-two combined hits, matching the output from the first three games of the series combined.

A mind-boggling sequence on the basepaths that set up the first of two clutch hits for Brian Anderson on the night.

A taxed bullpen with a slew of new faces going five innings.

Monte Harrison’s first career MLB hit and stolen base in the sixth inning after a phenomenal run-saving catch in center field in the second and a near scare in the third.

And, ultimately, an 8-7 win for the Marlins, who at 6-1 have Major League Baseball’s best record by win percentage (.857).

The win completed a three-day, four-game sweep against Baltimore, which featured Miami as the home team at Oriole Park for the final two contests. It marked the first time the Marlins swept a four-game set since 2016. They are tied for the best seven-game start in franchise history, matching 1997, 2004 and 2009.

It stamped Don Mattingly as the winningest manager in franchise history.

And it continued the improbable run of success in their first live action after an eight-day layoff to get a COVID-19 outbreak inside their traveling party under control and the team added 17 new players to their roster ahead of the series on Tuesday.

“It just ended up being one of those games,” Mattingly said. “The guys battled all night.”

A common theme for the Marlins’ first series back after quarantining in their team hotel in Philadelphia after 18 players and two coaches contracted the novel coronavirus.

This was already a team that was viewed as one of the league’s worst teams by those outside the organization. That was before having to fill more than half of its roster with players they brought in through waiver claims, trades, free agent signings and their alternate training site in Jupiter.

But the scrappy motley crew once again didn’t bow down.

“I don’t know if the guys are angry or hungry, I don’t know, but we’re not thinking about anything,” said veteran catcher Francisco Cervelli, one of the Marlins’ offseason acquisitions. “We just come here to play baseball, play hard, do the best we can. The best part is play hard and not give excuses.”

A two-run seventh inning, keyed by a Jesus Aguilar sacrifice fly and Anderson RBI triple, put the Marlins ahead for good. Anderson drove in three runs on Thursday and had five RBI over the past three games. His first two came on a line-drive single to center in the third inning one at-bat one of the more peculiar sequences of the night.

After Cervelli reached on a two-out double, Aguilar hit a chopper to third base that was ruled a single even though the throw from Orioles third baseman Pat Valaika was wide, Cervelli then turned for home after the seemingly errant throw but got halfway down the third-base line before retreating back. Cervelli slid under the tag and was safe at third. Aguilar reached second on the run-down attempt.

Jonathan Villar went 3 for 4 and hit a first-pitch, leadoff home run in the bottom of the first.

Every Marlins player in the starting lineup safely reached base. That included Harrison, who recorded his first big-league hit with an infield single in the sixth.

But while the Marlins’ offense showed up, the Orioles found ways to erase every lead Miami obtained over the first six innings.

After the Marlins went up 1-0 on Villar’s home run in the first, Nunez hit his first home run of the game in the second. A running grab from Harrison in right-center two batters later potentially saved another run from coming in.

They retook the lead 2-1 only for the Orioles to plate two in the top of the third. The first came on an Anthony Santander triple that plated Hanser Alberto. Harrison crashed face-first into the center-field wall trying to chase down the fly ball and was down for a few moments and was checked on by a trainer and Mattingly. He stayed in the game. A Dwight Smith Jr sacrifice fly gave the Orioles (5-7) their only lead of the game.

The Marlins’ 4-3 lead after the third was erased on a Chance Sisco home run to lead off the fourth. A 6-4 lead going into the fifth was erased by back-to-back home runs from Smith Jr and Nunez to lead off the sixth.

Jordan Yamamoto, making his season debut, lasted just four innings and gave up four runs on six hits (including home runs to Nunez and Sisco) while striking out four.

Mike Morin, one of a slew of relievers the Marlins picked up over the past week, earned the win after throwing two scoreless innings. in the sixth and seventh to keep Baltimore at bay before Miami’s seventh-inning rally. Brad Boxberger tossed a perfect eighth, and Brandon Kintzler earned the save in the ninth after holding Baltimore to one run.

“It was a good night for us,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly’s milestone

Weaved into all of this — the team’s resilience, the improbable sweep, the ascension to the top of the leaderboard — came a personal milestone for Mattingly. Thursday’s win was Mattingly’s 282nd as the club’s manager, surpassing Jack McKeon for most in franchise history.

Mattingly tends to shy away from thinking about personal achievements. He also knows there’s still work to be done.

The Marlins are at a cricital juncture in their rebuild, one that came following his second year in Miami when the Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter ownership group took over. The team went 120-203 the last two years as big-league production took a back seat to improving overall organizational depth. The rise of the farm system, some offseason signings and the tenacity the team has shown over the past week

“Hopefully,” Mattingly said, “I’ve been through the worst of what we’re going to go through, as far as getting through some stuff. Obviously, an ownership change and a build. So hopefully, we’re on the other side of that.”

In the meantime, there is still a little bit of time to celebrate. Mattingly said he received a bottle of “bubbly” for reaching the milestone. He can’t open it yet, though. Immediately after the game, the team began a bus trip from Baltimore to New York City for a three-game series against the Mets that starts Friday night. Members of the traveling party aren’t allowed to eat or drink on the bus ride, Mattingly said, because “we’ll spread the particles in the air.”

“It was a nice gesture,” Mattingly said.

‘As positive as possible’

Meanwhile, the focus remains on continuing this hot yet improbable start and keeping the focus on baseball despite the outside noise and internal adjustments and

That’s where having players like Cervelli is a benefit.

The 34-year-old has been in the big leagues since 2008. He started his career in the New York Yankees organization. He’s become a respected member of the Marlins’ clubhouse in his brief tenure with the club.

He’s been leaned on to keep morale high just as much as he’s been relied on behind the plate to navigate a pitching staff that featured at least a handful of players he never met in person until he met them on the mound.

“I’m one of the veteran guys here, and I have feelings,” Cervelli said. “I feel very uncomfortable. Last week, it was tough for me. You can’t put me in a cage, but I have to behave myself, especially with the younger guys. If you’re a veteran or you’re a leader, they’re going to follow you. If you have a bad attitude, they’re going to do the same thing. I’m trying to be myself and be as positive as possible and remind them that this isn’t how the big leagues look. The big leagues are something else, something different than this. This year is very particular. I want to show them how it is to be in the big leagues. It’s the sky. It’s heaven. Right now, it’s a little uncomfortable, but we’re just here like kids playing baseball.”

The Marlins are doing more than just playing baseball. They’re winning. They’re confident. They’re making the rest of the league notice them.

Will it continue? Time will tell.

“We never know,” Villar said. “We’ve got a good team. ... This is good for us.”