Miami Marlins go from nearly no-hit to sweeping Boston Red Sox. Takeaways from the win

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

In their first two games at Fenway Park, the Miami Marlins scored 16 runs on 26 hits to clinch their series against the Boston Red Sox.

In the series finale on Thursday, the Marlins went from potentially being on the wrong end of a no-hitter to sweeping the series.

Final score: Marlins 2, Red Sox 0.

With the win, the Marlins have swept the Red Sox in a three-game series for the first time in franchise history. The only other time they swept the Red Sox came in a two-game set in 2015. Miami won the first two games of the series 10-1 on Tuesday and 6-2 on Wednesday.

The Marlins improve to 48-34 on the season. Boston falls to 40-42.

It was Miami’s seventh shutout win of the season, which is tied for the fourth-most in the National League behind the Chicago Cubs (nine), Los Angeles Dodgers (nine) and San Diego Padres (eight).

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Miami Marlins third baseman Jean Segura (9) runs towards third base during the eighth inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Miami Marlins third baseman Jean Segura (9) runs towards third base during the eighth inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Jean Segura to the rescue

The Marlins were held without a hit for the first seven innings on Thursday, failing to figure out Brayan Bello.

And then third baseman Jean Segura, who wasn’t originally in the starting lineup until both Garrett Cooper (illness) and Yuli Gurriel (nose) were scratched pregame, got things going.

He broke up Bello’s no-hit bid with an infield single that shortstop Kike Hernandez dove to stop but couldn’t throw to first base in time.

It was the first of four consecutive hits by the Marlins, who took the lead and had a chance to tack on more runs but failed to capitalize.

Joey Wendle’s single through the right side moved Segura to third and chased Bello, who received a standing ovation from the Fenway Park crowd. Jon Berti then opened scoring with a single to center against Chris Martin that scored Segura.

“When we were on defense before that inning, I told Joey, ‘Don’t worry, we’re gonna get about 10 hits next inning.’ I was wrong. We only got four,” Berti said. “Obviously, you try not to ever think about anything like that. You have a plan and approach against whoever you’re facing and you’re trying to execute that and not worry if we have 20 hits and 20 runs or if we have not hits and no runs.”

A Jesus Sanchez broken-bat single to left loaded the bases, but that’s where the offense’s run ended in the inning.

Nick Fortes then hit into a double play, with Wendle out at home and Fortes out at first, before Luis Arraez was intentionally walks and Jorge Soler struck out to strand the bases loaded.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a solo home run in the ninth against Kenley Jansen to give Miami an insurance run. In his first series back after about six weeks on the injured list, Chisholm went 5 for 12 with a double, two home runs, five RBI and four runs scored.

Thursday was the second time this season Segura broke up an opponent’s no-hit bid late in a game. On April 24 against the Atlanta Braves, Spencer Strider also carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning before Segura hit a bloop single.

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (44) pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the fifth inning at Fenway Park.
Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (44) pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the fifth inning at Fenway Park.

Jesus Luzardo keeps Marlins in it

While it took until the eighth inning for the Marlins to scratch across a run, left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo and the Miami bullpen kept Boston off the scoreboard all game.

Luzardo threw 6 1/3 shutout innings against the Red Sox, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine.

After giving up a leadoff single to Alex Verdugo and a two-out walk to Rafael Devers in the first inning, Luzardo retired 17 consecutive batters before giving up back-to-back one-out single to Devers and Adam Duvall in the seventh to end his outing.

Andrew Nardi relieved Luzardo and stranded both runners by striking out Masataka Yoshida and getting Christian Arroyo to groundout.

Tanner Scott then threw a scoreless eighth before A.J. Puk logged his team-leading 13th save with a scoreless ninth.

Arguably the biggest series of the season (so far) is next

The Marlins close out their final road trip before the All-Star Break with three games against the Atlanta Braves (53-27) this weekend at Truist Park.

It’s a series between the top two teams in the National League East and two of the top three teams in the National League standings overall (the Marlins and Diamondbacks are tied for second in the division).

The Braves have a six-game lead on the Marlins in the division. Miami holds the National League’s top wild card spot.

The Marlins have been looking for answers to beat the Braves for quite some time now. Miami is 1-6 against Atlanta so far this season and has not had a winning record in a season series against the Braves since 2014. Atlanta has won the NL East each of the past five seasons.