The Marlins experienced some highs and some lows this past weekend against the Mets. On Friday night, every thing seemed to be going right for the Marlins. Josh Johnson took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, John Buck got his Marlins career off to a great start with a 2 for 4 game including a grand slam, the bullpen only allowed just one hit in two and two-thirds innings, and the defense was flawless. The only negative from Friday’s Opening Night game was that outfielder Mike Stanton left in the fifth inning with a tight left hamstring.
Saturday night was a bittersweet game for the Fish. Ricky Nolasco pitched a great game allowing two runs on seven hits, did not walk and batter and recorded four strikeouts in seven innings. The Marlins’ bats definitely missed Stanton in the lineup. The Marlins got off to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning, but were not able to score until the ninth inning. Leo Nunez came into the ninth inning of the game to keep the game tied at two runs apiece. Nunez started off the inning by walking the leadoff man on four pitches. After two short groundouts, the runner was at third base with two outs. Nunez proceeded to allow a two-out RBI single to catcher Josh Thole on a 1-0 count. Thole has the reputation of being a slap hitter, so I’m not sure why Nunez left the pitch up and on the right of the strike zone to the left-handed hitter. In my opinion, if you have a runner in scoring position and two outs, the pitcher should pitch inside to the left handed hitter. By jamming the hitter with inside pitching, it would force the batter to hit a groundball to an infielder for an out.
In any event, the Marlins did come back to tie the game in the ninth inning with a two-out RBI single from pinch hitter Greg Dobbs off of Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez. After Dobbs tied the game at three runs apiece, Rodriguez walked Chris Coghlan on four pitches to load the bases for Omar Infante. Rodriguez had thrown a first-pitch fastball to five of the first six hitters, so the chances of him throwing a first-pitch fastball to Infante were really good. Well, Rodriguez did throw a first-pitch fastball for a strike to Infante. There are a couple of ways Infante could have approached the at-bat. The first approach Infante could have taken was an aggressive approach. Just like Dobbs hit Rodriguez’s first-pitch fastball up the middle to tie the game, Infante could have done the same. The other approach is the more patient approach. After Rodriguez had thrown four pitches out of the strike zone to Coghlan, Infante was probably thinking that he wasn’t going to swing at anything until Rodriguez could show him that he can throw a strike. Infante proceeded to swing at Rodriguez’s second pitch, which was a curveball low and away that he popped up to second base. It’s one of those things that happen, but I thought Infante was going to take the aggressive approach and swing at the first pitch. The Marlins eventually lost the game 6-4 in 10 innings.
Sunday’s game was a disaster for the Marlins. Veteran Javier Vazquez made his first start in a Marlins’ uniform and did not have his best stuff. He pitched only two and one-third innings allowing four runs on six hits, walked five batters and only struck out one batter. That was not what we were expecting out of Vazquez this season. My hope is that he regroups and has a much better outing in his next start. The offense was anemic against knuckle-ball pitcher R.A. Dickey. The Fish managed to score only one run on five hits and struck out seven times in six innings against Dickey. The Marlins did have an opportunity to come back but they were not able to. The bullpen did a decent job on Sunday. Edward Mujica, Brian Sanches, and Ryan Webb combined to pitch five and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball. Randy Choate, on the other hand, allowed two runs on one hit, walked two, and struck out one batter. Choate also committed an error in the inning. The Marlins pitchers combined to walk nine batters in the game. The Marlins also committed their first three errors of the 2011 season on Sunday. Throwing errors by Emilio Bonifacio and Hanley Ramirez brought in a couple of runs to score and Choate’s error eventually scored.
After a somewhat disappointing weekend series against the Mets, the Marlins will face the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros this week. The Marlins need to win the majority of the next six games because after this weekend’s series in Houston, the Marlins will be traveling to Atlanta and Philadelphia for six games. Because the Marlins failed to set the tone this weekend, they will have to make a statement this week. Anibal Sanchez makes his first start of the 2011 season today against the Nationals. In his career against the Nationals, Sanchez is 5-0 with an ERA of 2.28 in 13 starts.
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