BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
Anytime the Miami Marlins face instate rival Tampa Bay, these two squads with the lowest payrolls in baseball always find a way to make each series competitive.
Entering the last series from May 16-18, the “Citrus Series” which is separated by 205 miles, saw the teams 56-56 in 112 games.
Miami has won a pair of World Series while the Rays have been there but were unable to win the Fall Classic.
The 2025 season has presented new challenges for both teams.
Miami replaced Skip Schumacher with Clayton McCullough as the new skipper. Former Rays executive Peter Bendix is running the show for Miami, as he replaced Kim Ng.
Meanwhile, the Rays had to relocate to George M Steinbrenner Field as on October 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana Field where much of the fiberglass roof membrane was ripped off. Although the renovation is planned for 2026, its future is uncertain.
The Marlins will face the Rays in Tampa from June 6-8th.
During their recent series with the Rays, the Marlins came away with 9-4 and 5-1 triumphs and lost 4-0.
We attended the Saturday and Sunday contests between the two teams and I asked McCullough what he thought about facing the Rays. My colleague Craig Minervini also added an excellent follow up question which you’re going to see in the story about this topic and much more.
Leave little doubt that there will be speculation about the future of Marlins Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara’s availability as we approach the trade deadline.
On Saturday, Alcantara pitched four clean innings before yielding four runs in the fifth inning.
He pitched five innings, allowed five hits, had two walks and struck out three.
But he had difficulty holding runners which led to four stolen bases including a pair to Jose Caballero in the fifth inning that led to the winning run. Tampa Bay won the contest 4-0 and the Rays pitching staff limited Miami to six hits.
Alcantara’s record dropped to 2-6 with a 7.99 ERA.
Sunday’s game featured a pitching match-up between Cal Quantrill for Miami who entered the contest with a 2-4, 7.00 ERA squaring off against Tampa Bay’s Shane Baez 3-2, 5.02 ERA.
It seems like everytime I go to Loan Depot Park there is always a memorable moment and on this day another one occurred.
I’ve seen a no-hitter, All-Star Game and thanks to Quantrill’s fifth inning, you can add “The Immaculate Inning” to the list. In the fifth inning he struck out Jonathan Aranda, Christopher Morel and Kameron on nine pitches.
It was truly something worth watching and that was the lead topic on Monday’s edition of 108 Stitches, Baseball Talk which you can see the entire episode by clicking in this story. We broke down all of the facts about Quantrill’s accomplishment.
During the fourth inning, Quantrill worked out of a jam but was fortunate to only yield one run.
The Marlins amassed 10 hits in the contest and had a pair of homers by Otto Lopez and Liam Hicks.
Hicks had two hits in the game while Eric Wagaman reached base three times with a pair of hits.
Quantrill’s final line was he pitched five innings, gave up two hits, one run walked two and stuck out six to improve to 3-4. After Quantrill’s departure, the team used four pitchers and there was no save credited,
Meanwhile, Baez pitched six innings, gave up nine hits, five runs, walked three, struck out two and yielded the pair of round trippers to fall to 3-3.
Miami came away with a 5-1 win and now lead the all-time series 58-57 with a return trip in early June.
As of 5-29-2025, The Tampa Bay Rays are 28-27 which is good for second place in the AL East behind the New York Yankees.
Miami stands at 22-32 and are in fifth place in the NL East.
This weekend, the San Francisco Giants come to town for a three game series.
Quantrill will return to the hill Friday Night with his 3-4 mark and 6.09 ERA. He’ll face Kyle Harrison (0-1, 9.1 IP, 3.80 ERA).
On Saturday, Edward Cabrera (1-1, 4.73) faces Giants All-Star Robbie Ray (7-0, 2.56 ERA). I had a chance to speak with Ray when he was an All-Star in Miami.
On Sunday, the Marlins throw out Ryan Weathers (1-0, 15.2 IP, 1.15 ERA) against Hayden Birdsong (2-1, 32,2 IP, 2.48 ERA).
The only way the Marlins fans will see Justin Verlander is in the Giants dugout talking to his teammates, as he’s currently on the injured list.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com. You can also follow him on X @TribuneSouth.
To see his broadcasts, there is no charge to subscribe to the South Florida Tribune YouTube Channel.
Finally, he wrote a book, “Lessons From The Microphone” which can be purchased on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
