Now they’ve had cycles in back-to-back seasons.

Xavier Edwards became the second Marlins player ever to hit for the cycle Sunday, as the rookie went 4 for 4 and hit his first career homer in a 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He also scored both of Miami’s runs.

The Marlins had their inaugural season in 1993, but they’d never had anyone hit for the cycle until Luis Arráez accomplished the feat while going 4 of 5 with two runs and a pair of RBIs in an 8-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on April 11, 2023.

“Really cool,” Edwards said. “Luis’s the first and we were teammates for about a month-and-a-half last year. He’s a great guy, great hitter and great teammate. Really cool to kind of follow in his footsteps and get the second one. Definitely very excited and very grateful for it.”

Edwards homered off Tobias Myers on the opening pitch of the game, drew a leadoff walk from Myers in the third, doubled against Jakob Junis in the fifth and tripled off Joel Payamps in the seventh. The triple also was the first of his career.

The homer came on Edwards’ 185th career plate appearance. Myers noted after the game that he and Edwards were former teammates in the Tampa Bay Rays’ farm system.

“He’s a good hitter,” Myers said. “He’s always been that way. He’s always been able to put the ball in play and make things happen.”

By the time Edwards stepped to the plate for the final time with two outs in the ninth inning, he was well aware how close he was to a milestone. But he also had to face Devin Williams, a two-time NL reliever of the year.

“I hate to say it, but I’d been thinking about it for the last two innings or so leading up to my last at-bat,” Edwards said. “I was like, ‘All right, I think I’ve got a single left.’ For whatever reason, I was thinking in my head two-strike hit. I don’t know why. Probably not that great a thought process.”

Sure enough, Edwards hit a grounder to the left side on a 1-2 changeup, sprinted down the line and reached first just ahead of the throw from shortstop Willy Adames.

“I would have been pretty upset with myself if I didn’t hit a single,” Edwards said. “I usually spray a lot of singles, so I would have been pretty upset about not getting a single. So I’m really glad I did.”

Edwards was the eighth player ever to hit for the cycle during the same game in which he hit his first career homer, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The last person to do that was San Francisco’s Fred Lewis in 2007.

This has been an eventful year for Edwards, who missed the start of the season with a foot infection but has come on strong lately. Edwards, who turns 25 on Aug. 9, is batting .379 with a .462 on-base percentage in 25 games.

“He’s hitting the ball the other way, he’s walking, hitting it with power,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “His at-bats are super calm at the plate. There’s not much swing-and-miss. He’s never off balance. He puts it in play. You like him in leverage spots. He’s been outstanding. I’ve said it before: I knew he was going to be pretty good at the plate. I didn’t know he was going to be this good at the plate.”

Even so, Edwards seemed an unlikely candidate to hit for the cycle because he hadn’t hit a homer before Sunday. Only 10 of his 56 career hits have gone for extra bases.

He managed to leave Milwaukee with a couple of souvenir baseballs — one for his first career homer and one for completing the cycle. Edwards had a good idea where he planned to send them.

“Once we’re back home, I’ll probably give them to my mom,” Edwards said. “She’ll take good care of them and put them somewhere safe.”

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Triolo’s line drive single against Marlins reliever Declan Cronin (0-1) scored automatic runner Ke’Bryan Hayes. Pirates reliever Jose Hernandez then earned the first save of his career, retiring 2023 NL batting champion Luis Arraez, Josh Bell and Bryan De La Cruz in his only inning of relief.

After Pirates starter Mitch Keller gave up seven hits, five runs (four earned), walked two and struck out three over 5 2/3 innings, Pittsburgh’s bullpen held the Marlins to just one hit.

Luis Ortiz (1-0) pitched critical shutout innings in the 10th and 11th, getting the Marlins to ground into double plays twice, to set up Hernandez.

“I think when I left the game it was 5-2, I said, ‘If we could just get back into it,’” Keller said. “I knew that our bullpen was gonna lock it down, and they sure as hell did.”

Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo allowed two hits and two runs, walked two and struck out eight — one shy of matching the club record of nine opening-day strikeouts set by Josh Beckett in 2004 and Jose Fernandez in 2014.

Left fielder Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run homer off Luzardo that briefly tied it in the third, but Pittsburgh’s hitters largely struggled against the left-hander, tallying 18 whiffs as Miami went up 5-2.

“We got his pitch count up,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “We made him throw a lot of pitches. I was happy with the fact that we kept grinding through at-bats. I don’t think when you see a 12-inning game that you see at-bats given away, especially on opening day. And we did not give away an at-bat tonight.”

The Marlins are already facing injuries to several pitchers in their starting rotation, and manager Skip Schumaker opted to take out Luzardo after five innings and 85 pitches despite his dominant start.

“If you ask me, of course I want to go more,” Luzardo said, “but it’s early in the season, understandable. (Schumaker) told me that’s what it was. I definitely felt good to continue.”

Pinch-hitter Eddie Olivares and short stop Oneil Cruz hit solo homers off Miami relievers Andrew Nardi and Sixto Sánchez, and Michael A. Taylor scored against reliever Anthony Bender, tying it 5-5 in the eighth.

Bell singled twice, and Jake Burger had three hits for the Marlins, who have now lost six straight opening-day games played at home dating back to 2014.

Former AL batting champion Tim Anderson, who signed a one-year deal with Miami in the offseason, had an RBI double in his first at-bat as a Marlin. Arraez was 0 for 6.

Brazilian soccer star Neymar threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (right elbow inflammation) and Colin Holderman (illness) were placed on the 15-day IL, retroactive to Monday. C Yasmani Grandal (left foot plantar fasciitis) went on 10-day IL, retroactive to Monday.

Marlins: 3B Jonah Bride was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville, filling roster spot opened up in the trade that sent Jon Berti to the Yankees. … LHP Braxton Garrett (left shoulder impingement) went on 15-day IL, along with RHP JT Chargois (neck spasms), Eury Pérez (right elbow inflammation) and Edward Cabrera (right shoulder impingement), all retroactive to Monday.

UP NEXT
LHP Martín Pérez will start for the Pirates on Friday against LHP A.J. Puk, who will make his first career MLB start.

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The deal for the shortstop is pending a physical, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet announced. The agreement is worth $5 million, according to ESPN.

Anderson is Miami’s first big free agent addition of the offseason. The two-time All-Star became a free agent in November after the Chicago White Sox declined a $14 million option, completing a $25 million, six-year contract.

The 30-year-old Anderson had spent all eight of his major league seasons with the White Sox. After leading the major leagues with a .335 average in 2019, Anderson hit .245 last year, the second-lowest of his big league career ahead of only .240 average in 2018.

Anderson had just one home run and 25 RBIs over 123 games for Chicago. His RBIs matched his total in 2022, when he played in just 79 games because of injuries. He dealt with sprained left knee and right shoulder soreness this past season.

And Anderson brings a fiery temper to his new team.

In August, he and Cleveland’s José Ramírez threw punches that led to a benches-clearing brawl and suspensions. Anderson, who took a hit to the jaw in the fracas, had his penalty reduced from six to five games under a settlement with Major League Baseball.

He had kept his tag on Ramírez’s back as he stood over and straddled him. Ramírez seemed irritated and, after getting up, he pointed his finger in Anderson’s face and yelled. They then fought.

Anderson took off his glove and threw the first punch and then another that missed before Ramírez countered to the Chicago star’s jaw, dazing him and knocking him on his rear end on the infield dirt.

In April 2019, he was suspended one game for a confrontation with Royals pitcher Brad Keller. Anderson flipped his bat after hitting a home run off Keller, then was hit on the buttocks by a Keller pitch in his next plate appearance. Keller was suspended for five games.

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But there’s still plenty of talent available — especially considering its mid-February.

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, lefty Jordan Montgomery, third baseman Matt Chapman, slugger J.D. Martinez and former MVP Cody Bellinger are all still looking for homes as camps got underway.

Eighteen teams start workouts on Wednesday and the final 10 begin Thursday. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres began early because of their March 20 opener at Seoul, South Korea.

After a flurry of big signings early this offseason — most notably Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Aaron Nola — MLB’s hot stove cooled.

Soler’s deal with the Giants was confirmed by a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal was pending a successful physical.

The veteran provides the Giants with a formidable power threat. He made his first All-Star team with the Marlins last season, hitting .250 with 36 homers, and led the American League with 48 homers in 2019 while with the Royals.

The well-traveled Cuban was the 2021 World Series MVP for the Atlanta Braves after hitting .300 with three homers. He also won a championship with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

San Francisco hopes to contend in the NL West after hiring Bob Melvin from division rival San Diego to replace Gabe Kapler following two straight years missing the playoffs. The Giants won a franchise-record 107 games and the division crown in 2021.

CAVNAR HIRED BY A’S
Jenny Cavnar is the new primary play-by-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics, hired by NBC Sports California.

Cavnar becomes the first woman to handle primary play-by-play duties in major league history — set to be the voice for most of the A’s games during the upcoming 2024 season.

She has covered baseball for 17 of 20 years in the media business, most recently calling Colorado Rockies games the past 12 years as a backup play-by-play announcer while also hosting pregame and postgame shows and regional coverage.

She became the first woman in a quarter-century to handle play-by-play for an MLB game in 2018. She is a graduate of Colorado State.

DÍAZ BACK FOR METS
New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz will be brought along slowly as he finishes his recovery from a torn patellar tendon in his right knee sustained last March 15 while celebrating Puerto Rico’s win over the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.

“He’s doing great to begin with,” new Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday at spring training in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “He’s got a smile on his face.”

A two-time All-Star who turns 30 next month, Díaz had a 1.31 ERA and 32 saves in 35 chances in 2022, then agreed to a $102 million, five-year contrac t that calls for the Mets to make deferred payments stretching to 2042.

“He’s probably going to be doing a lot of back field work first,” Mendoza said. “And then we’ve got to get him on the main stage.”

Mendoza was Aaron Boone’s bench coach with the New York Yankees before replacing Buck Showalter as Mets manager in November.

“It’s exciting to be able to put on a big league uniform as a manager for the first time.” Mendoza said. “I’m really. really excited. It was a long three months.” University and former college lacrosse player.

BARD INJURED
The Colorado Rockies said reliever Daniel Bard will have surgery Wednesday to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

There’s no timetable for Bard’s return. Rockies pitchers and catchers report Wednesday for physicals before the start of spring training, a day ahead of Colorado’s first workout.

Bard got hurt last week during a throwing session, according to The Denver Post. Bard is entering the the final season of a $19 million, two-year deal.

“I was playing normal catch stuff and I moved a little awkwardly and I felt something pop,” Bard told the Post, the first to report his injury.

The right-hander appeared in 50 games last season, going 4-2 with a 4.56 ERA and one save. Bard missed time at the start of the 2023 season due to anxiety, which he said he experienced both on and off the field.

RANGERS ADD SAMPSON
Right-hander Adrian Sampson has agreed to a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers and will report to big league spring training with the World Series champions.

Sampson is returning to the Rangers for the first time since 2019. The 32-year-old didn’t pitch in the majors last season after right knee surgery in May while in the Chicago Cubs organization.

After going 6-11 with a 5.64 ERA in 40 games (19 starts) with Texas in 2018 and 2019, Sampson spent one season with the Lotte Giants in South Korea. He went 5-7 with a 3.03 ERA in 31 games for the Cubs in 2021 and 2022.

Sampson is 11-19 with a 4.43 ERA in 44 starts and 28 relief appearances over five big league seasons.

RODRÍGUEZ CONTRACT DETAILS
Cuban pitcher Yariel Rodríguez’s $32 million, five-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays contains options, escalators and performance bonuses that allow the 26-year-old right-hander to earn up to $47.5 million as a starter and $37.5 million as a reliever.

Rodríguez gets an $8 million signing bonus payable upon approval of the deal by the commissioner’s office, according to contract terms obtained by the AP.

His deal, announced Friday, calls for salaries of $2 million this year, $5 million each in 2025 and 2026 and $6 million in 2027. Rodríguez has a $6 million player option for 2028 and if he declines that option, the Blue Jays have a $10 million club option.

MAKING MOVES
— The Phillies claimed RHP Kaleb Ort off waivers from the Marlins and also agreed to a minor league contract with RHP David Buchanan. Ort has pitched parts of the past three seasons with the Red Sox. Buchanan pitched for the Phillies in 2014 and 2015 and has spent the past seven seasons pitching in either Japan or South Korea.

— The Yankees claimed INF Jordan Groshans off wiavers from the Marlins. The 24-year-old played 17 games for the Marlins in 2022, batting .262 in 65 plate appearances.

— The Reds claimed OF Bubba Thompson off waivers from the Minnesota Twins. The 25-year-old played parts of the past two seasons with the Rangers.

— The Astros acquired minor league OF Oliver Carrillo from the Padres for international bounus pool allotment.

—

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The person confirmed an MLB.com report of Balkovec’s hiring to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the deal.

Balkovec finished her second season as manager at Class A Tampa in September. She debuted with the team in April 2022 with a win as the first woman to manage a Major League Baseball affiliate.

Before that, Balkovec was the first woman to serve as a full-time minor league strength and conditioning coach, then the first to be a full-time hitting coach in the minors with the Yankees.

A former softball catcher at Creighton and New Mexico, Balkovec got her first job in professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals as a minor league strength and conditioning coach in 2012.

In 2016, Balkovec joined the Houston Astros, hired as the Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator and later was the strength and conditioning coach at Double-A Corpus Christi.

She joined the Yankees organization as a minor league hitting coach in 2019.

The Marlins have made a series of front office moves since the 2023 season ended.

A month after parting ways with general manager Kim Ng, who led the organization for three seasons, the Marlins hired former Rays GM Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations. Ng was the first woman to become GM of a major league team.

Bendix got to work immediately, bringing in former San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler as an assistant GM.

—

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“They had told us it would be between 6:30 and 7:15,” he said, “but I thought when I didn’t get it by a quarter to 7, it wasn’t going to happen, so I went up just to rest a minute, kind of get my thoughts together.”

Just then, as son Pat arrived upstairs, the phone rang. Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark was on the line and Leyland had been voted in, two weeks shy of his 79th birthday.

“There was definitely a tear in my eye,” Leyland said.

An entertaining and at-times crusty manager who led the Florida Marlins to a World Series title in 1997 and won 1,769 regular-season games over 22 seasons, Leyland received 15 of 16 votes Sunday from the contemporary era committee for managers, executives and umpires. He becomes the 23rd manager in the hall.

Honest, profane and constantly puffing on a cigarette, Leyland embodied the image of the prickly baseball veteran with a gruff but wise voice. He is 18th on the career list for manager wins but is second behind Joe McCarthy among those who never played in the major leagues. He also was ejected 73 times, tied with Clark Griffith for 10th in major league history.

Leyland’s players included Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Larry Walker, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

“I think young people, young players are searching for discipline,” Leyland said. “So we all have our insecurities and I think even sometimes players do, even though they’re great players. And I think that they’re always looking for that leadership. I tried to impress on them what it was to be a professional and how tough this game is to play. And I also told them almost every day how good they were.”

Former player and manager Lou Piniella fell one vote short for the second time after also getting 11 in 2018. Former player, broadcaster and NL President Bill White was two shy.

Managers Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson, umpires Joe West and Ed Montague, and general manager Hank Peters all received fewer than five votes.

Leyland managed Pittsburgh, Florida, Colorado and Detroit from 1986 to 2013. He will be inducted into the Hall on July 21 along with players voted in by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, whose balloting will be announced on Jan. 23.

Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, Chase Utley, David Wright, José Bautista and Matt Holliday are among the players eligible for the BBWAA ballot for the first time in the current vote. Holdovers include Todd Helton, who fell 11 votes short this year, and Billy Wagner, who was 27 shy.

Leyland grew up in the Toledo, Ohio, suburb of Perrysburg. He was a minor league catcher and occasional third baseman in the Tigers organization from 1965-70, never rising above Double-A and finishing with a .222 batting average, four homers and 102 RBIs.

“Being not a very good player myself, I realized how hard it was to play the game,” he said.

Leyland coached in the Tigers minor league system, then started managing with Bristol of the Appalachian Rookie League in 1971. After 11 seasons as a minor league manager, he left the Tigers to serve as Tony La Russa’s third base coach with the Chicago White Sox from 1982-85, then embarked on a major league managerial career that saw him take over the Pirates from 1986-96.

The Pittsburgh Press was said to have run a headline: “Jim Who?”

“Yeah, it was `Jim Who?’ when I got here and, you know, I’m still here,” Leyland said. “At least people know me a little better than they did when I first got here.”

Pittsburgh got within one out of a World Series trip in 1992 before Francisco Cabrera’s two-run single in Game 7 won the NL pennant for Atlanta. The Pirates sank from there following the departures of Bonds and ace pitcher Doug Drabek as free agents, and Leyland left after Pittsburgh’s fourth straight losing season in 1996. Five days following his last game, he chose the Marlins over the White Sox, Red Sox and Angels.

Florida won the title the next year in the franchise’s fifth season, the youngest expansion team to earn a championship at the time. But the Marlins sold off veterans and tumbled to 54-108 in 1998, and Leyland left for the Rockies. He quit after one season, saying he lacked the needed passion, and worked as a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I did a lousy job my last year of managing,″ Leyland said then. ”I stunk because I was burned out. When I left there, I sincerely believed that I would not manage again. … I always missed the competition, but the last couple of years — and this stuck in my craw a little bit — I did not want my managerial career to end like that.”

He replaced Alan Trammell as Tigers manager ahead of the 2006 season and stayed through 2013.

Leyland’s teams finished first six times and went 1,769-1,728. He won American League pennants in 2006, losing to St. Louis in a five-game World Series, and 2012, getting swept by San Francisco. Leyland was voted Manager of the Year in 1990, 1992 and 2006, and he managed the U.S. to the 2017 World Baseball Classic championship, the Americans’ only title.

Now he’s alongside the elite.

“It’s the final stop,” Leyland said. “To land there in Cooperstown, it doesn’t get any better than that. I mean, that’s the ultimate. I certainly never thought it was going to happen. Most people probably don’t. But it did, and I’m sure I’m going to enjoy it.”

—

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Bendix had spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball career in the Rays’ front office, initially as an intern in 2009. He worked his way up to becoming the team’s senior vice president of baseball development, then general manager, a position he held since December 2021.

Tampa Bay had become his home. The team was his family. And he couldn’t see anything prying him away.

“I’m good where I am, truly,” Bendix recalled thinking when he learned of the Marlins’ interest. “I had a phenomenal situation with the Rays, been there for 15 years, had a lot of success, worked with phenomenal people. … The concept of not working there anymore, it needed to be the exact right situation with the right people in place, frankly, with the right owner.”

But in a deal that came together in just a few weeks, the Marlins convinced Bendix to leave Tampa Bay to become their new president of baseball operations. The Marlins announced the hiring last week, and Bendix was formally introduced by the team at its ballpark on Monday as the third president in club history.

What changed?

“I talked to Bruce,” Bendix said Monday, referring to Miami’s chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman.

During a hiring process that Bendix described as “thorough,” his comfort with the idea of a career change grew as he realized that both he and Sherman’s principles were almost perfectly aligned.

“And that was enough to get me to say, ‘You know what, if I’m going to leave an excellent situation. It has to be the perfect fit,’” Bendix said. “And this is a perfect fit.”

Sherman said that Bendix was “one of many, many” names that the Marlins sifted through during their search for a new leader.

Bendix will take over the department previously overseen by Kim Ng, who had been Miami’s general manager for three seasons. Ng left last month after she and Sherman could not agree on the structure of the department going forward; the Marlins had exercised a contract option to keep Ng in 2024, but Ng declined.

“I was hoping Kim would stay,” Sherman said. “I wish Kim nothing but the best. Terrific lady. Not lost on me, we’re in the playoffs, and I think she’ll be just fine. We had hours and hours and hours of conversations, Kim and I. She made the election not to continue. I respect that decision she made.”

Ng had a hand in constructing a roster that put Miami in the playoffs for the first time since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and the first time in a full season since the Marlins won the 2003 World Series. Miami lost to Philadelphia in the Wild Card Series last month.

The 38-year-old Bendix, a graduate of Tufts, outside Boston, has been part of a Tampa Bay team that has provided a blueprint for consistent success for nearly a decade. The Rays have made the playoffs in each of the past five seasons and have baseball’s fourth-best regular-season record over that span, behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston and Atlanta. Tampa Bay lost in the wild card round this year to eventual champion Texas.

The Rays’ success has come with a payroll that consistently ranks among the bottom third of the 30 teams, with many clubs spending at least $100 million more than Tampa Bay each year. The Marlins are another team that isn’t among the league’s big-spenders but are hoping to replicate some of Tampa Bay’s achievements.

“I’m not blind to Tampa’s success,” Sherman said. “We’re not going to be the 29th payroll. I think they’ve averaged the 29th highest payroll for about a decade or more, and they have the (fourth)-most wins. And that’s like off the charts on any statistical analysis. Whatever secret sauce he has … hopefully he brings that to this organization over multiple years.”

Sherman added he will give Bendix plenty of room to shape the organization. Sherman will weigh in as needed, but he expects that to be infrequently.

Bendix is inheriting a team with strong pitching but struggled before this season to attract high-profile hitters. Miami does have the National League batting champion Luis Arraez, who has expressed interest in a possible longterm contract.

Still, the Marlins recorded the sixth-fewest hits and fifth-fewest runs last season.

Bendix said he’s simply looking for “really good players” when asked his philosophy on roster construction.

“The thing that the Rays always told themselves that I will bring here is that it’s constant evaluation and it’s constantly looking to improve,” Bendix said. “And you have to always be looking to innovate, to try new things, to not be afraid to fail, because we need to maximize every part of the organization that we possibly can. We need to create every edge that we can. And it does not matter how successful any team has been to this point, you always need to be constantly improving.”

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The move is expected to be finalized in the coming days, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Marlins had not announced the deal. It could be completed in time for Tuesday’s start of baseball’s annual general managers’ meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Athletic first reported the agreement.

Bendix will take over the department previously overseen by Kim Ng, who had been general manager of the Marlins for the last three seasons. Ng elected to leave the team last month after she and Marlins owner Bruce Sherman evidently could not agree on the structure of the department going forward; the Marlins had exercised a contract option to keep Ng in 2024, but Ng declined.

Bendix spent 15 seasons with the Rays, starting as an intern and getting promoted to senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager in December 2021.

The 38-year-old Bendix moved up the Rays’ ladder briskly: after his time as an intern, he became assistant of baseball operations, coordinator of baseball research and development, and director of baseball development – eventually becoming vice president of that department before getting promoted to the GM role.

Before his promotion to his current role, he spent six seasons leading the baseball development department and served as vice president of baseball development from 2020-21.

And he was part of a consistent winner: Tampa Bay has made the playoffs in each of the last five seasons — it lost a wild-card series this year to eventual World Series champion Texas — and have baseball’s fourth-best regular-season record over that span, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston and Atlanta.

The Rays did all that with a payroll that consistently ranks in the bottom third on the 30-team MLB list, with many teams spending $100 million more — sometimes much more — than Tampa Bay does on players each year.

He’ll be asked to do much of the same in Miami, another team that isn’t among the big-spenders but that made the wild-card round of this year’s playoffs under first-year manager Skip Schumaker. The Marlins lost that series to Philadelphia.

The Marlins have batting champion Luis Arraez coming back next season along with first baseman Josh Bell — who exercised his $16.5 million option — but will be without ace right-hander Sandy Alcantara, who will miss 2024 because of surgery on his elbow.

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Nick Castellanos provided the game’s signature moment, directing his ring finger toward a joyous Phillies dugout after a key double and sending a message the defending NL champions crave the cherished piece of jewelry they were denied by Houston last season.

Castellanos added an RBI double in the eighth inning to score Bryce Harper — who knocked off his helmet as he steamrolled past a stop sign — and the Phillies moved within a victory of an NL Division Series matchup against Atlanta.

Craig Kimbrel worked a scoreless ninth for the save.

Phillies fans held signs that read “Un-phinished Business” and they were downright delirious when injured slugger Rhys Hoskins fought back tears and threw the ceremonial first pitch.

The Phillies won 11 postseason games last season, two shy of the ultimate goal and their first World Series title since 2008. The theme of unfinished business — as it is for so many World Series losers — was a key element that permeated throughout the clubhouse this season.

“We’ve got to get back after it this year, and it’s a different team,” manager Rob Thomson said ahead of the game. “I believe it’s a better team, to be honest with you.”

Here they are again, this time with star shortstop Trea Turner, playing big games in October — and with Wheeler in top form.

Wheeler, on the short list of great free-agent signings in team history, was dealing from the start. He threw nine fastballs in the 97-99 mph range in the first inning, the hardest a pitcher who struck out 212 batters has thrown all season.

The veteran right-hander never backed down as 45,662 fans at Citizens Bank Park roared on every K.

Wheeler’s slider, nasty. His sinker, filthy.

Wheeler is simply grateful for another postseason shot a year after he was lifted with a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning of Game 6 in the World Series against Houston. Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer off Alvarado later in the inning and the Astros soon clinched the World Series.

That was last season. Alvarado struck out Yuli Gurriel with two runners aboard to end a Marlins threat in the seventh. The left-hander retired two batters in the eighth, and Jeff Hoffman got the third out of the inning.

Wheeler threw only 46 pitches through four innings in this one — while Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo labored through 90 over the same span.

The 26-year-old Luzardo was raised in South Florida and grew up rooting for Marlins stars such as Juan Pierre and Miguel Cabrera.

Luzardo was 6 years old when he attended Game 3 of the 2003 World Series, won by the Marlins, and was thrilled when he was traded to Miami ahead of the 2021 season.

His first postseason start for his childhood team hardly went as planned.

Led by Kyle Schwarber’s 47 homers, the Phillies had six players in the Game 1 lineup with at least 20. But they didn’t need the Schwarbombs and Alec Booms to get the job done, as every starter had at least one hit.

Johan Rojas, the No. 9 hitter, hammered away at Luzardo with a nine-pitch at-bat for a single that opened the third. He moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Alec Bohm’s RBI double to left.

Bryson Stott rattled Luzardo in the fourth with an RBI single to make it 2-0 and Cristian Pache gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead on a single that scored Castellanos.

Flip that finger, Nick. The Phillies have their first one.

FIRST PITCH
Hoskins choked back tears, patted his chest in appreciation and even waved a rally towel before he threw the first pitch. The slugging first baseman has not played this season after he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee. The 30-year-old Hoskins — playing on a $12 million, one-year contract — might have made his last appearance at Citizens Bank Park. He will head to Florida this week to face live pitching with hopes he could return to the Phillies if they make the World Series.

MANUEL RECOVERS
Former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel posted a picture on social media of him watching the game from a hospital room. Manuel led the Phillies to the 2008 World Series title. He suffered a stroke in September.

UP NEXT
The Marlins send LHP Braxton Garrett (9-7, 3.66 ERA) to the mound Wednesday night against Phillies RHP Aaron Nola (12-9, 4.46). Nola went 2-2 in last year’s postseason — winning a game in each of the first two rounds, then losing one in each of the next two. Garrett gave up three runs over five innings in each of his two starts vs. the Phillies this season.

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The first female GM of a major North American sports franchise understood she was a pioneer. A symbol, too. She embraced the daunting task of taking a franchise with limited support and turning it into a contender while being careful to avoid setting a timetable for success.

Timetables invite judgment. Ng simply doesn’t see the world that way.

“You’re never sure when it’s all going to come together,” Ng said.

So rather than create some arbitrary deadline, Ng focused on the process of drafting and developing talent and sifting through rosters elsewhere in search of pieces she felt might fit.

The process gained traction last winter with the hiring of relentlessly upbeat first-year Skip Schumaker, who won the job during the first hour of his interview with owner Bruce Sherman. It picked up speed with the arrival of All-Star second baseman Luis Arraez and the addition at the trade deadline of veterans like first baseman Josh Bell.

And suddenly there Ng was on Saturday night, her hair drenched in a mix of Budweiser and bubbly, wearing a black T-shirt that read “Take October” in the Miami Marlins’ signature teal. The clubhouse mood was giddy after the Marlins clinched the franchise’s fourth playoff berth in its 31-year history with a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Asked how a team that will finish the season with a negative run differential around 50 and injury issues made it to the postseason, Ng smiled as she tried and occasionally failed to dodge a steady stream of beer showers.

“This team has just exemplified heart and they know it,” she said. “And I think that is the driver of this group.”

Miami likely will have the worst run differential of a postseason team in major league history. The Marlins lost ace Sandy Alcantara to an elbow injury in early September while lineup fixtures like Arraez and Jorge Soler battled health issues down the stretch.

Still. Miami entered Sunday a remarkable 33-13 in one-run games, the best winning percentage (.718) in the National League since 1980, a full 13 years before Charlie Hough threw the franchise’s first pitch.

“They’ve proved to themselves they can do it,” Schumaker said.

Over and over and over again.

Miami’s clinching victory in some ways symbolized its season. Star centerfielder and video game cover model Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit an early homer. A walk, a bunt single, a sacrifice and a forceout grounder gave them the lead for good. Eight relievers combined to get 27 outs, the last four by newish closer Tanner Scott.

It is not the way Schumaker drew it up. Yet the utility player who got every bit of ounce he could out of his talent during an 11-year big-league career has become the manager perhaps uniquely qualified to handle a roster that is better than the sum of its parts.

“He said (during his interview) ‘I have certain unconditional aspects of how I manage’ and boy, he managed that way,” Sherman said. “The motivation he got from these guys, unbelievable.”

Motivation that wavered but never fully waned, even as Miami trudged through an uneven first five months of the season in which it did little more than find a way to hang around.

“There’s been like four times this year where I just to myself I’m just like ‘Man, I don’t know if we can do it,’” catcher Jacob Stallings said. “Just treading water and every time we (seem close to out of it), I mean we just do something crazy.”

Like sweeping rival and NL East winner Atlanta in mid-September immediately after a draining series loss in Milwaukee threatened to blunt their momentum.

Like rallying for two runs in the ninth inning at Citi Field against the New York Mets on Thursday, a game suspended by rain at nearly 1 a.m.

Like coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the eighth inning on Friday night, the sixth time this season they’ve roared back from three runs or more after the seventh, the most by any team in the majors in the modern era.

Miami’s 17-9 sprint through September culminated in a postgame party near the mound at PNC Park on Saturday night while a small cadre of fans behind the dugout shouted “Lets Go Marlins!”

Heady territory for a team with an opening day payroll of a relatively modest $91 million, a team that had dropped at least 93 games in each of the last four non-pandemic-shortened seasons.

“It’s not about payroll, it’s about what you got in here,” Sherman said, pointing to his heart. “And these guys had it in here.”

Maybe because the people like the woman Chisholm calls “Momma Kim,” showed them the way.

“Our staff, our front office, they’re a family and they showed us how to be a family,” Chisholm said. “And it starts at the top with Sherman, to Kim to Skip. It all starts from there. We just watch them and they help us. It’s fun to see how much work they put in.”

A job that Ng insists is still far from finished.

“I need to go back to my (introductory) press conference where I said ‘Failure is not an option,’” she said. “And that has really come full circle … So we’re here but we still have more work to do.”

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