MIAMI — It was about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, roughly 3 ½ hours before game time, and as they milled about the visitors' clubhouse at Marlins Park, most members of the Phillies' traveling party kept glancing at a bank of televisions. Right there, before their eyes, the Atlanta Braves were blowing 7-1 and 8-7 leads in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, at home against the Boston Red Sox.
But the Phillies still needed to cash in. If they were really going to make the division-leading Braves regret their worst loss of the season, they had to defeat the lowly Miami Marlins, who were sending a 22-year-old rookie starter to the mound for the finale of a three-game series.