Walk Off Grand Slam!!!
Heath Bell should personally take each and every Marlin who batted in the ninth inning out to dinner because they saved him from receiving the loss he deserved Sunday afternoon. Bell allowed two runs in the top of the ninth resulting in a 4-2 lead by the Mets.
Emilio Bonifacio led off the bottom of the ninth with a triple, his second of the game, and later scored on a Greg Dobbs pinch-hit, RBI single. Brett Hayes was pinch running for John Buck at first base and raced to third on the hit, taking advantage of New York’s no-doubles defense. After Jose Reyes’ sac fly tied the game, Omar Infante popped out and it looked as if we would go to extras. But Hanley Ramirez then drew a walk, and Austin Kearns was hit to load the bags. Giancarlo Stanton followed that up with a BLAST on the first pitch of his AB.
I didn’t see Stanton’s shot live because MLB.com failed to give me a live look-in on Miami’s climactic bottom of the ninth. They let me see Greg Dobbs’ RBI single, but then terminated the video. Anyway, Giancarlo’s blast landed on the staircase right next to the home run sculpture, nearly drilling the horrific thing and winning my prize.
Rich Waltz talks funny when he gets really excited. In 2005, I heard him call a Mike Lowell grand slam, and I noticed that his dialogue got very choppy and loud. Same thing on Stanton’s: “Drive to left. And deep. Get! Outta! Here! Grand Slam!!! Ball Game!!! Walk Off!!!” Eerily similar to the call seven years ago on Lowell’s: “Lowell hits it left! Hits it deep! Hits it well! And it is…GONE!! A Grand Slam! The MARLINS get their big hit of the night!!!!
Stanton’s blast won the series for the Marlins, and now Miami is 18-16.
Fish Stepping Up To the Plate
The Marlins season is not going exactly as planned by the front office, but certain players are stepping up in their roles and making up for various downfalls.
Miami solved its infield conundrum by inking Jose Reyes for six years this offseason. Not only was the third base void filled by shifting Hanley Ramirez, but Reyes’ addition settled uncertainty regarding the top of the batting order. But Jose Reyes has not been getting on base as often as most would appreciate. In April, his OBP was under .300, 
and it showed in the team’s record. However, the record may have been even worse had Emilio Bonifacio not risen to the challenge.
Bonifacio’s OBP is currently .333, but his biggest contribution has been on the base paths. With 17 stolen bases this season without getting caught, along with 16 runs, he is the catalyst of Miami’s offense. Boni has 31 hits this year, all singles except for one double. That’s fine, however, because of his stolen base efficiency and his ability to go first-to-third on any hit to center or right field. Making up for Reyes’ slump, Bonifacio has solidified his starting role.
The Marlins used to be on of the top home run-hitting teams in the league. Unfortunately, power has not come out thus far. Gaby Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, and 
Logan Morrison, the top three home run hitters on the team last season, combined for 4 home runs in April. That figure may be especially small due to the big new stadium, but it shouldn’t be THAT low. Doing his part, Omar Infante put his team on his back by hitting 5 homers in April. He hit 7 all of last year.
Infante is also hitting .330 and has 66 total bases. Ozzie Guillen has hit him in both the top and the bottom of the order, but Infante has been consistent wherever he hits. When Omar started laying off the longball this month, Stanton heated up, but Morrison and Sanchez are still without their power strokes.
The biggest let down thus far has been the closer role. Heath Bell was signed for three years to be the team’s shutdown closer, but Bell has blown 4 of 7 save chances and has 3 losses on the season. Steve Cishek stepped up and has thrown 16 innings in relief this year. He has 4 wins, and opposing batters are hitting under the Mendoza line against him.
In the rotation, Josh Johnson has not even come close to looking like his old self, and 
Mark Buehrle is just 2-4. But Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez have shut down opposing teams, and their combined record is 6-1, compared to the 2-7 mark of Johnson and Buehrle. My hope is that both Buehrle and Johnson are merely in slumps and still have prime years ahead of them.
The Marlins opened the 2012 season with high expectations, but slumped in April. The team has picked up some slack in May, at least so far, utilizing a nice combination of veteran production and young talent. The Fish who have stepped up to the plate so far are looking to carry their nice seasons into the summer months.
First Trip to Miami; Game at Marlins Park
Before I start, I apologize for the delay in this post, as I made my quick baseball trip to Florida from March 31st to April 3rd, but with the busy-ness that my baseball season 
brings to my life I haven’t had time to compile this post. Also, many thanks to my Grandma and my Uncle who made this trip possible by sharing their residences, and time, in Florida. The game I attended at Marlins Park was on April 2nd, an exhibition against the Yankees. It was the day after I visited Jupiter to see the last spring training game of this season at Roger Dean Stadium. I had club level seats on the first base side for the game in Miami, decent territory for foul balls.
On the morning of April 2nd, we departed my Uncle’s house near Port St. Lucie, and 
made our way down to Miami, about an hour and a half ride. I wanted to get to the Little Havana area earlier than normal for any baseball game because we had to first find our parking lot (I had used ParkWhiz.com to secure a spot just a block or two from the Park), and second, we had to eat. Off of I-95, Marlins Park is just a few minutes if you know how to navigate the neighborhood, but we did not. Unfortunately placed construction, coupled with my Uncle’s fearless driving nearly got us arrested as a cop flagged us down when my Uncle drove the wrong way on a one-way path through a construction zone. Some of the street signs in Little Havana are not clearly marked, and the GPS didn’t help. Luckily some strategic sarcasm by both the cop and my Uncle kept us from trouble.
I don’t remember how, but we eventually got around the construction and through the neighborhood and found our parking lot in the shadow of the looming Marlins Park. The Park is technically in Northwest Miami, but it is just a few minutes from Southwest, into which the Cuban-condensed neighborhood extends. So we drove into Southwest and ate at a quaint Cuban place called Versailles Cafe. Now on regular game days, Marlins Park opens 90 minutes prior to first pitch, but for games expected to be crowded, it opens two hours prior. I didn’t know whether or not this game would be a so-called “premium game,” but as we approached the Park a little after 5 p.m., people were already streaming into the stadium.
We approached the stadium on the centerfield side, at the Orange Bowl plaza. The 
centerfield entrance to the stadium is extremely weird. The entry gates are fast and efficient, but fans enter on field level, right behind the Clevelander Club in left field. And then they are forced to take a long escalator to the main concourse. The escalator ride was rather suspenseful as I would be seeing the Marlins home field for the first time in person. I was planning on hanging out in left field during BP, trying to shag home runs or get a lucky toss up, and I assumed I’d have no problem since I read on the A-Z Guide on Marlins.com that fans can be wherever they want during BP, and have to return to their seats 45 minutes before game time. Awesome…
Except when I attempted to enter the left field seats, I was stopped by the usher checking tickets, I looked around to the other sections in the area, and there were ushers guarding each. So I asked the lady whether or not I had to have a ticket for the section in order to enter. “Yes,” she replied with a cordial smile. “Even for batting practice?” I asked. “Yes,” she said. Darn!
The front office was raving about how fans would love the new park, and how nice the staff members were. This is true that the staff members were extremely nice, but it bugged me beyond imagining that I couldn’t go anywhere during batting practice. Every section guard I asked responded with the same friendly grin as if they were the storm troopers to Jeffrey Loria’s Darth Vader, except with smiles. So far, so not-that-great.
The whole batting practice ordeal bugged me the whole night, and spoiled the trip for me really. I was able to sneak past temporarily occupied security guards to go down to the left field corner section, but no batted balls reached me. Randy St. Claire was the closest Marlins coach or player to where I was able to be in left field, and as Zack Hample can attest, he is the single, least fan-friendly person in the baseball world. He will simply not acknowledge fans’ existence. I have seen him, literally, run in front of 
players fielding ground balls during BP and steal them away, probably to make sure they don’t get tossed into the stands. So yeah, no chance for me in left field. I was able to sneak down into a section on the right field line during the Yankees’ portion of BP, but it was too crowded over there, and nothing came my way.
Things got boring, and I knew I was going to have to take pictures and document everything cool or not cool about the stadium for various posts on this blog. I’ve talked about most of the important stuff in the two posts: Marlins Park Logistics and Marlins Park Features. I also ranted about the stadium in Impressions of Marlins Park. So I 
walked the perimeter of the stadium and photographed anything I thought to be worthwhile. I eventually came around to right field and ascended a staircase to the home run porch, I thought for sure I could enter the section up there. But still the answer was no. To recap, I had tickets priced at $90 in the club level on the first base side, and I was not allowed to enter the $10 section in the upper deck in right field despite an explicitly stated note on Marlins.com saying I could.
With batting practice officially spoiled, and my chances of getting a Marlins Park Commemorative ball temporarily put on hold, I decided to get to my seat and just watch. About 20 minutes before first pitch, the roof began to retract, and upon the fans’ realization of the occurrence, the ballpark erupted with cheers as the materialized dream of the Marlins was in action.
The Marlins wore orange hats (and even had helmets to go with them) with black jerseys. It was strange, and it actually looked good. I don’t know why they are not wearing the orange hats for the regular season games. During the game, I stayed in my first base, club level seat, but no foul balls even 
came close. The Yankees won 5-2 and that was that.
It was a quick 3-day trip, and the next morning I was on a flight back to D.C.. I enjoyed the parts of Miami that I visited. But Little Havana and its surrounding areas were rather congested, and I assume the ballpark will not ease traffic in the neighborhood. Hopefully I can return to Marlins Park in the next few seasons. The 2015 All-Star game is slated for either Miami or Washington D.C., so I might be able to attend that one. And I am sure Miami will make the playoffs in the coming seasons, so who knows, I could be at a Marlins World Series game.
In Review: The city was cool, the ballpark itself was unique and fun to visit, but ballhawking stunk.
Marlins’ Historic Road Trip
On Wednesday the Miami Marlins concluded an historic 9-game road trip full of Stanton shots, pristine pitching, and hot tempers in which the team won 7 straight and finished 8-1. Coming off an awful homestand, Miami took to the road and won three straight series in San Francisco, San Diego, and Houston. Over nine days, Mike Stanton hit five home runs, Emilio Bonifacio stole six bases, and Marlins starters amassed five wins.
The Marlins entered San Francisco last Tuesday having won their last 4 at AT&T Park, 
and were propelled by pitching and clutch hitting to a sweep against the Giants, making it 7 in a row in San Fran. After Tuesday’s win, Miami was ready to close out the Wednesday game when Heath Bell entered in the ninth with a 2-run lead. Two straight hits made it a one-run game and Steve Cishek relieved Bell. Another run in the inning was charged to Bell, but Cishek finished the 9th with the game tied, and went on to pitch the 10th for the win after Giancarlo Stanton’s extra-inning home run.
Cishek carried his mastery into the San Deigo series when the Marlins and Padres went 13 innings on Friday. Working with a 5-run lead after the first inning, Josh Johnson could only survive 2 2/3 as he allowed 6 runs in the third inning. Cishek took over in the 10th with the score tied at 8, and was saved by an Omar Infante RBI double in the 13th. Cishek pitched the 13th and collected another win, his fourth of the year. At that point, Ozzie Guillen made it clear that Cishek would be the new closer until Bell regain his form. Finishing off the Padres on Sunday, the Marlins had their second straight sweep.
The momentum carried over into Houston as Carlos Zambrano tossed a complete game shutout of the Astros on Monday. Hanley Ramirez demolished a 9th inning home run to the train tracks in left-center, the fourth run in Miami’s win. The Fish dropped Tuesday’s contest 3-2. On Wednesday night, Hanley Ramirez was hit by Wilton Lopez on an up-and-in fastball in the seventh inning; Lopez was removed immediately afterward. While returning to the dugout, he flashed the “Lo Viste” gesture at the 
Marlins’ bench. “Lo Viste” is two fingers forming a sideways “V” shape across an eye. It is Spanish for “Did you see that?” and was coined by Emilio Bonifacio and Omar Infante last season. Apparently Lopez was disturbed by the celebratory gesture, which Marlins players use after a hit or anything else noteworthy. Miami won Wednesday’s game in 12 innings, as Omar Infante collected two, game-winning RBIs.
As a result of the spectacular road trip, Miami moved ahead of Philadelphia in the NL East standings. The momentum carried over through Thursday’s off day into Friday’s home matchup against New York. Greg Dobbs hit a walk-off single to propel Miami to a 6-5 win. The Marlins are home for the weekend against the Mets, as well as a two-game series versus Pittsburgh.
Stanton Heating Up
Last season, once Mike Stanton hit his 50th career home run, I speculated he would reach 500 career blasts in his mid-30s. The 22-year-old slugger got off to a slow start this season; however, and did not hit his first home run of the year until April 29th. The muggy April for Stanton was due, mostly in part, to his knee injury he incurred in Spring Training, but also to his inability to adjust to the new stadium. The 500 home run prediction was on the basis that he would maintain a average of one home run ever 4.32 games, and not be hindered by major injuries over a decently long career. However, with a 6’5,” 245 lb. frame, Stanton will likely be offset by a fair share of injuries over a 15-20 year career.
Giancarlo Stanton was homer-less for the first four weeks of the season, but finally went deep on April 29th, jacking a 450-foot bomb to dead center, defying the dimensions of Marlins Park. And now, he has homered in five of his last six games. At the end of this season, I will redo the math with the larger sample size to better estimate Stanton’s career figures.
It’s a good thing that Giancarlo Stanton is out of his slump because I would have recommended he start going by “Mike” again, rather than by his birth name, Giancarlo, had he not started hitting home runs. Besides, “Mike,” is immensely easier to type than “Giancarlo,” and as long as he keeps launching five ounce baseballs into orbit, I will be typing his name a lot on this blog.
Stanton’s most impressive home runs came last season when he hit to the right field upper deck in New York, the upper left field deck at Sun Life, left-centerfield seats at Coors Field, and (in my mind) most impressively off the left-centerfield bleachers at Sun Life Stadium (shown above).
According to ESPN, his home run at Coors Field was his longest, measuring 466 (or so) feet, but I have a problem with that. That home run was a fly ball that was coming down, and landed 466 feet from the plate, but the line drive to centerfield in the above video was still carrying, a lot, when it hit the bleachers. Maybe it only hit 430 feet from the plate, but had the bleachers not been there, it would have landed 500 (or more) feet away.
As I always say, if you go to a Marlins game, get there early to watch Giancarlo take batting practice. His past BP feats include hitting a 500-foot blast onto the left field concourse at AT&T Park, as well as lodging a ball in the left field scoreboard at Petco Park. It’s a fact that he’s big, strong, and dominant, but we can only hope that Giancarlo Stanton keeps up his dominance for years to come.
Impressions of Marlins Park
I remember owning a Marlins hat for the first time when I played on my older brother’s baseball team in kindergarten. I remember the Marlins winning the World Series in 2003 when Josh Beckett tagged out Jorge Posada in Game 6 in New York. I remember watching a Marlins game in full for the first time ever when I was home sick from school in third grade, it just so happened it was Opening Day of 2005 (The Marlins beat the Braves 9-0 at home, Juan Encarnacion hit a grand slam, and Josh Beckett earned a win). Don’t judge my obsession when I say that I still remember Rich Waltz’s call on a Mike Lowell grand slam the same season when the Marlins beat the Rangers at home. And the next year I attended my first Marlins game ever, at Camden Yards, on June 22 (2006), one of the greatest comebacks I never saw because I was too tired to stay. But through thick and thin, I had never been to a home Marlins game. Until this month.
April 2nd was my first time ever in Miami, and I liked the city, or what I had seen of it, but despite my love for the Marlins, I am glad that Marlins Park is not my district’s baseball stadium. Watching a Marlins game in 2012 does not feel like it did when I started following the team in 2005, when Encarnacion hit that grand slam into bright orange right-centerfield seats. In my opinion, when the roof is closed at the new Park, the atmosphere is too dark. The lime green color on the outfield walls, despite it’s Miami “feel,” does not fit in with the team’s scheme. The 70-plus-foot home run sculpture is just material proof that Jeffrey Loria tried too hard to make the Park special. The fish tanks behind the plate cannot even be seen by the television cameras. And for any owner out there working on designing a new stadium, you can do nothing worse than separating the fans from the action by raising the outfield seats well above the field and having 
bullpens push the fans farther back.
I understand why average baseball game-goers love Marlins Park. For a Miami citizen to attend a baseball game from 7 to 10 at night, Marlins Park is perfect. The food is great, the roof makes the atmosphere comforting, and the team is fun. You can sit in comfort, enjoy the un-obstructed views, shop at a relatively-cheap souvenir shop, and enjoy replays on the jumbotron. But analyzing every aspect of Marlins Park, I don’t care for its intricacy and complication.
I am glad that the citizens of Miami are taking a liking to the new brand of the team and the new stadium. The whole idea just oozes with the culture of Miami, but as I said, 
Loria should have kept it simple. Think of Camden Yards, Nationals Park, AT&T Park, or PNC, all of which are cozy, new stadiums. All of which are in historic, culture-filled cities, and all of which reflect that culture in the form of a state-of-the-art baseball stadium. The Marlins were well on their way to doing this by securing the Orange Bowl site, overlooking downtown Miami. The pastel colors in the uniforms…fine. Fish tanks were not a bad idea, but they can only be enjoyed by fans sitting directly behind home plate, unless you were to know about them, at the park you would be completely oblivious to them. The layout of the park itself is too confusing, as a normal-sized seating section is partitioned into halves or thirds, and locked down by guards checking tickets upon entrance. Again, the lime green walls…ugly. The lighting when the roof is closed…to dim. The outfield walls…too far back.
And the home run sculpture, for the sake of baseball fans trying to enjoy games, is simply too much. All the renderings, still available on Marlins.com, lack the gaudy sculpture. The renderings make the park look spectacular, since everything is perfect in animation. I thought the home run feature was okay the first time I saw it in person, but seeing now, over and over again, and for 81 games each year, I can’t even stand it anymore, and we have only been through 10 games.
It will take a while for me to get used to the newness of the team, everything from the colors to the quantity of fans feels so different. For the purpose of attracting fans, Marlins Park is perfect. But I have my problems with it, and I am in no way dying to return.
Here’s the Problem With High Expectations
After losing two great pitching duels in Washington last weekend, the Marlins could not find their stroke in New York, as they were swept by the Mets in three games. The offensive depression carried over to Friday night when Miami lost at home to Arizona 5-0.
It is unclear precisely what the problem is right now, but we can deduce. For one thing, the supposedly shut-down closer of Heath Bell has only converted on one save in his
four chances this year, and in the three times he blew saves, the team lost. The starting pitchers have been interesting as well. Josh Johnson has not yet regained his 2009-2011 form, and Mark Buehrle has simply given up too many hits and other various baserunners. Anibal Sanchez has been Miami’s most consistent starter, nothing that I did not expect given his recent track record.
Sanchez debuted in 2006 and pitched a no-hitter just weeks after being called up. He was sidelined for parts of ’08 and ’09, but in 2010, and last season especially, Sanchez blossomed into a shut-down pitcher. Anibal is consistently good against intra-divisional teams (against the Nationals he is 7-0 in 16 career starts). With the injuries and inconsistencies of Johnson and Ricky Nolasco, Sanchez is the team’s most reliable pitcher in my opinion.
It is understandable that Josh Johnson is off to a slow start, since he was inactive for 9 months coming into Spring Training this year. And Mark Buehrle is pitching in the National League for the first time in his career, an adjustment that is not as simple as it may seem. Ozzie Guillen has already faced the biggest scandal of his career, praising Fidel Castro in the largest Cuban-exile community in the country. Carlos Zambrano is aloof from the tranquility of being a team-player, and the lack of offensive support for him shows that. Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes are contributing, but I am afraid that they set themselves apart from the rest of the lineup by putting themselves in too high of esteem. Giancarlo (Mike) Stanton is off to a slow start as well, but he should heat up once the season gets rolling some more.
The team could still be distracted by the hype of new park, but that is still no reason to 
have a winning percentage below .370. In my opinion, David Samson’s expectations for the Marlins this season were way too high. He said that if the team finished .500 this year it would be a “complete and total failure.” It’s fine to have high expectations, but to put them in such negative connotation is to put unneeded pressure on this team made up of three new stars, and young guys that just want to play baseball.
The wins will come when the players get used to being a team. To have three new studs (Heath Bell, Jose Reyes, and Mark Buehrle) in such integral roles on the team and demand nothing short of perfection is way too much to ask for a club not yet used to their brand-new scheme of things.
Back at Nats Park: Marlins at Nationals 4.20.12
I’m always extremely excited to attend my first regular season game of the year, and I was scared that this trip wouldn’t be possible due to bad weather expected this weekend in the capital. But Friday’s baseball practice was graciously cut short by my coach, so my dad, brother, and I made the drive up to see the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park.
My main goal for this game was to snag a Marlins Park commemorative baseball, which do indeed have this logo on them, and my main concern was that the Fish wouldn’t bring the special balls on the road. In order to focus on snagging a ball, I wasn’t going to get worked up about getting signatures from the new Marlins, and nobody really signed anyways. I was very happy to see Randy Choate holding a commemorative ball when the Marlins pitchers came out to throw during batting practice.
The ball snagging on Friday was not as easy as it was last September when both the Marlins and Nationals were out of the playoff race and literally five people showed up to ballhawk during batting practice. Instead, fans piled into the left field bleachers on Friday and screamed at Marlins pitchers for toss-ups anytime they fielded a hit ball. Even my knowledge of everybody’s name on the team would not have helped as I could not have been heard over the deafening fans in the front rows. So my only hope was to go to the Red Porch and catch a home run like I did in September, but nothing was reaching the seats. The only one that came close was a Giancarlo Stanton blast that hit the batter’s eye in center. But Stanton only took about 3 or 4 swings each time up, and didn’t stick around to hit for too long. The bullpen swallowed up 4 or 5 home runs in left field, and I didn’t want to run around to right field, despite it being less crowded, because Logan Morrison is Miami’s only power-lefty, and he was working the opposite field during BP. But…funny story about batting practice: Anibal Sanchez, who went 1-for-5 with a triple in his first three starts, hit in the first round of BP. He knocked a few liners to center and right field, but it was peculiar to see a pitcher hit pre-game at all.
I was out of luck as BP started winding down, so I chose to go down toward the Marlins dugout, get an autograph if I was lucky, and wait until July or September to snag a commemorative ball. The section behind the dugout was crowded, but only with autograph hopefuls, not fans with advanced knowledge of players’ names, so I had a decent chance for a toss up when the Marlins players cleared the field. As the turtle cage was being folded by ballpark staff, I looked to see if any of Miami’s players had balls as they jogged off. Sure enough, Steve Cishek was fiddling around with one. As he entered 
the dugout, a simple, “Steve!” with my arms raised was enough to coax the ball from him. I was thrilled when I caught it, and I immediately studied each panel for the logo…but nothing! It was just a regular old Selig, nothing special.
I was disappointed the ball wasn’t of the preferred variety, but I have at least two more chances to snag one this season when the Marlins come to town. After that, I decided to park myself in our seats in straight-away left field. At first I was excited when I saw the location of section 106: prime home-run territory. But remembering how well the Nats pitchers are throwing this year, I figured my chances would be slim. The only one that came close was in the first inning when Danny Espinosa flew out to the track in straight-away left. It was on a line right toward me, and had the ball carried 20 more feet, I would have caught a home run.
I wondered what uniforms the Marlins would be wearing because they have been weird about fashion this year. In November, Jeffrey Loria unveiled gray uniforms as their primary roads, and then 
black as alternates. But in the first six road games the team had this season, they wore black in every single one. Also, when I saw the Fish play at Marlins Park in Spring Training, they wore black jerseys and orange hats as opposed to the black with black hats so far in the regular season. To my surprise, Miami wore the gray-on-gray. The writing on those jerseys is white, which is hard to read on the light gray. I still wish the team had stuck with teal and silver, but I’m getting used to the new scheme.
With the Marlins’ mediocre offense, and the Nationals’ great pitching, the game would be a defensive struggle, and if not for Rick Ankiel (3-for-3, HR, 2 runs), it might still be going. Emilio Bonifacio was the only Marlin who elongated the game offensively when Miami tried to get going in the eighth. With a runner on first and two outs, Bonifacio went down 1-2, but worked the count full by fouling off the next two and taking two balls. With a full count, Bonifacio fouled off six straight pitches on his way to a 14-pitch walk engaging Nationals Park, who cheered on the pitcher Tyler Clippard during the at bat that lasted probably seven minutes. Clip threw 25 pitches that inning, using the last five to strike out Hanley Ramirez to end the threat.
Miami’s best offensive chance actually came in the second inning when Giancarlo Stanton led off with a single, and Austin Kearns followed with a one-out double to left. With runners on second and third and one out, John Buck skied to center, but Joe Espada didn’t test the laser arm of pitcher-turned-centerfielder, Rick Ankiel. And with two outs, Donnie Murphy couldn’t collect an RBI.
Carlos Zambrano did not pitch a bad game for Miami, going seven strong innings, allowing the two runs (both scored by Ankiel), and striking out six. Rick Ankiel did not just provide the offense for the Nationals, he saved a few runs on defense. In addition to firing home to prevent Stanton from scoring in the second, he tracked down fly balls by Jose Reyes and Chris Coghlan to the warning track in left-center.
The Marlins ran out of luck in their series opener in D.C., and I ran out of luck by snagging only one ball at the game. The Fish are .500 (7-7) after Friday night’s loss, but Washington has its best start since moving to D.C., and are currently 11-4, leading the N.L. East.
Light That Thing Up!!!
Yes…that thing.
Rich Waltz hysterically announced Omar Infante’s solo home run in the second inning, as the first ever Marlins tater left the new park and landed in the Clevelander. Infante left the yard as if on cue from Craig Minervini, who was simultaneously conducting and interview in the left-field club section. The ball landed just a few feet from where Minervini, the Marlins on-field reporter, was standing.
For those who do not know, whenever a Marlins player hits a home run, the sculpture in centerfield will light up, spray water, and the birds and fish attached to it will dance around. All eyes turned toward the gizmo as soon as Infante’s homer hit off the façade on top of the Clevelander.
The original plan for my excursion to Marlins Park was to get left field seats for the opener against St. Louis, but since I knew tickets for that game would sell quickly, I was all for heading to the Astros series, but that didn’t pan out either. I was planning on going for left field seats because I wanted to catch the first home run at the park. I settled 
for tickets to the Yankees exhibition series when the opportunity arose, despite the fact that I would not be catching a home run.
It doesn’t matter much, though, because the left field seats will not be getting a whole lot of home run action this year. That is partly because the fence is so deep, but also because the seats are raised above both the Clevelander and the home bullpen. Infante’s home run actually hit the Clevelander sign, near the staircase. Even if I had secured a seat on that staircase for that game, the ball was too low to be caught. But a fan standing right behind the fence in the Clevelander happily caught the bounce off the sign. He was interviewed by Minervini moments later.
Even though I could not possibly have caught the ball, I would have liked to have been there to see the sculpture go off. Hanley Ramirez set it off for a second time in today’s game, with an 8th inning bomb to straight-away center. Ramirez’s blast tied the game at 4, and he secured the walk-off RBI in the 11th to cap a 4-5, 3 RBI day in Miami’s 5-4 win over Houston. According to ESPN, Hanley’s game-tying blast traveled 443 feet.
The Marlins capped a series win over Houston on Sunday afternoon, as they sported their orange “Marlins” jerseys for the first time this season. Miami is off tomorrow, and on Tuesday Ozzie Guillen returns from suspension for the home game against the Chicago Cubs.
Miami Bounces Off After Eleven
The home run feature is still yet-to-be-ignited, but Gaby Sanchez did ignite the ballpark in the eleventh inning, during the eleventh hour, of Friday the 13th. Miami held the lead over the Astros for the whole game until the eighth inning when J.D. Martinez hit the first (official) home run at Marlins Park, a two-run shot to tie the game at 4.
In the top of the ninth, Heath Bell recorded two quick outs, but made everybody uneasy when he hurled off 14 consecutive balls to load the bases and go 2-0 to Carlos Lee. Lee fortunately grounded out to Gaby Sanchez to end the threat.
Omar Infante, the hottest hitter on the team, flew out to deep left-center to end the tenth-inning. The inordinately deep ballpark has swallowed up a number of Marlins’ fly balls in these first two home games that would have been round-trippers at Sun Life, or any average Major League park for that matter.
Chris Coghlan singled to lead off the eleventh, and finally Gaby Sanchez came through with a shot to left, which hit off the chain-link fence in front of the Clevelander, and caromed back toward the field. The powerful bounce off the wall gave Coghlan enough time to scoot around third and slide across the plate without a contest.
And the Marlins have recorded their first win, and first walk-off, at the new park!
Friendly Commenters