Last night the Marlins made an improbable comeback off of Dodgers’ closer Jonathan Broxton. I felt that it was extremely important to take the first game of this series. Throughout the game, the only Marlin who was able to solve Jon Garland was Chris Coghlan. Coghlan homered twice off the veteran right-hander. Nolasco pitched a decent game allowing three runs on seven hits in six and one-third innings. Nolasco left the game in the seventh inning with runners on second and third with one out. Ryan Webb came into the game but could not hold the lead. The Dodgers tied the game on a ground ball to second base and then took the lead on a single up the middle. This was the second blown save from the bullpen in the last two days. Hensley also blew a 3-1 lead in Sunday’s game against the Rockies. The Dodgers scored an insurance run off of Marlins’ reliever Edward Mujica in the eighth inning that seemed, at the time, to have put the nail on the coffin.
In an inexplicable move by Dodgers’ manager Don Mattingly, Vicente Padilla came into the game to relieve Jon Garland. Despite the fact that the Dodgers’ bullpen has not gotten to a great start, there should have been someone else pitching for them in the eighth inning. In any event, Padilla allowed a leadoff walk to pinch hitter Scott Cousins and a single to Coghlan. Originally, I thought that Infante’s job was to bunt the runners over but as the at-bat unfolded, it didn’t look like he was bunting. Well, on the third pitch of the at-bat, Infante made a poor attempt at what looked to me to be a drag bunt. The Dodgers were able to get Cousins out at third base and keep the runners on first and second base. Gaby Sanchez proceeded to line an 0-2 pitch right back up the middle for an RBI single to cut the deficit to one run. If there is one guy that deserves a lot of recognition early on this season, it’s Gaby Sanchez. It seems like every time this guy comes up to the plate, he finds a way to knock in a run in a crucial point in the game. That, my friends, is what we call clutch-ability.
The next play for the Fish was not a very smart one. With one out and runners on first and second base, Mike Stanton hit a medium fly ball to centerfielder Matt Kemp. Once Kemp caught the ball, Infante decided to go the tag up and take third base. I’m not sure what he was thinking. With two outs, you never want to make the last out at third base. Infante was already in scoring position at second base just in case Stanton did not deliver which was the case. Aside from that, Kemp has a cannon for an arm, so why chance it? Bottom line, it was one of those bonehead plays where had the Marlins lost the game, this situation would have been magnified to the nth degree.
Another member of the Marlins who does not get any credit at all is Brian Sanches. Sanches pitched a perfect ninth inning to keep the score at 4-3 into the bottom of the ninth. Sanches has pitched 13.2 scoreless innings so far this season. He has only allowed one hit, four walks and 10 strikeouts in his impressive start to the season. He has undoubtedly been the team’s unsung hero this year and I think if you ask him, he wouldn’t mind one bit.
As luck would have it, the Marlins got to a struggling closer in Jonathan Broxton. Coming into Monday’s game, Broxton had amazingly converted all five of his save opportunities but had an ERA of 4.66. As I mentioned before, the Dodgers’ bullpen has not been serviceable so far this season, so a comeback was not out of the question. This was especially the case with Greg Dobbs and John Buck due up in the ninth inning. Well, Broxton struck out Dobbs and got Buck to ground out to first base. With two outs and no one on and Emilio Bonifacio up, the Marlins’ chances did not look particularly great. I thought Broxton was going to give Bonifacio a steady diet of fastballs up in the strike zone to get him to chase. Broxton did indeed throw fastballs to Bonifacio, but only two of those pitches were for strikes. Bonifacio worked a rare walk and brought up the struggling Hanley Ramirez. Manager Edwin Rodriguez gave Ramirez the day off on Monday after starting the nine-game home stand 1-for-21. Ramirez lined a 2-1 hanging slider to right field for a base hit and moved Bonifacio to third base. It was good to see Hanley get a hit at that moment. Hopefully that at-bat was a sign of good things to come for Hanley in the near future.
Now for the lucky part of the inning, Scott Cousins hit an 0-1 changeup for a weak ground ball to shortstop Jaime Carroll who for some reason decided to look up a little too soon and allowed the ball to get under his glove and into left field. In these situations for a winning ballclub, it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good. Now, I think that had Carroll come with the ball cleanly, it still would have been a close play at first base given Cousins’ speed. Nonetheless, the Marlins cashed in on the Dodgers misfortune. The Dodgers decided to intentionally walk Coghlan after falling behind 2-0 in the count. So up walks Omar Infante with two outs and the bases loaded. Again, Infante did not have a great eighth inning at the plate or on base, so this was his chance to redeem himself. Last year with the Braves, Infante seemed to have a flair for the dramatic and so far with Marlins, he had not repeated that success until Sunday’s game against the Rockies when he hit a two-out, three-run triple off of Ubaldo Jimenez. Infante extended his modest hitting streak to six games with a well-hit ball to left field that the left fielder Jerry Sands completely misplayed. Even though Sands misplayed the ball, it would have been tough to make a play on the ball anyway because it was hit so well.
It’s worth repeating that this was an important game to take. The Marlins going into Monday’s game had not had much success against Jon Garland in the past. Garland was 5-1 against the Fish going into Monday’s start. The other reason why last night’s game was important is because Kershaw will take mound tonight for the Dodgers. I’m not saying that it’s an automatic loss, but I do expect the Marlins to have some trouble against the lefty. On the Marlins side of the pitching matchup, the team hopes that Volstad can continue the success by the starting rotation during the home stand. So far during the home stand, the rotation has gone 4-1 with an ERA of 2.86. In his last start against the Pirates, Volstad received a win despite allowing five runs on four hits in five and one-third innings. The 6-8, 232 pound right-hander is 2-3 with an ERA of 4.91 in five career starts against the Dodgers. His best start against the Dodgers was actually his first major league start. Volstad allowed a run on five hits, one walk and six strikeouts in eight and two-thirds innings in Los Angeles. The Marlins are playing their best ball right now winning nine out of their last 11 games and going 6-1 on their nine-game home stand so far. It’s a great time to be a Marlins fan.
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