Open Thread and Ichthyomancy: Marlins at Giants (7/29)
Maybe the third time is a charm. Once again the Marlins will be going for the spilt of the series.
Anibal Sanchez takes the hill for the Marlins. Anibal pitched well in his last two starts, but of course, has nothing to show for it. Either the defense wouldn't back him up or the offense forgot to score runs when he was on the mound. Anibal is a pretty good daytime pitcher and to top that off, he had a good start in lasting outing against the Giants.
Madison Bumgarner is on the mound for the Giants. Bumgarner is another fairly soft-tossing lefty. How many of these do the Giants have? He is a fast ball (90.4 mph), slider, curve, change type of pitcher. So far this season, he has thrown everyone of them very well. That said, his slider is probably his most effective pitch. The Giants have won his last four starts, but those streaks don't last forever. Bumgarner is a creature of the night and generally he doesn't perform as well when the sun is shining. This will be his first start against the Marlins. My recommendation to him is to throw high in the zone fast balls over the middle of the plate when he faces Dan Uggla. This always works out well.
Ichthyomcany still be hating weekday day games.
Best of Luck to You!
Why is Alex Sanabia a starter?
VandenHurk (8-4), who has won his last four starts, pitched a seven-hitter and gave the Zephyrs their second consecutive complete game. On Tuesday night, Sean West pitched a five-hitter to beat Memphis 1-0.
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In his last four starts, VandenHurk has pitched 27 innings and allowed four earned runs, compiling a 1.33 earned run average in that span.
Dan Uggla rewriting History Books
Dan Uggla's two-run homer in the seventh inning on Wednesday was the 143rd of his career, matching Mike Lowell for the most in franchise history. Uggla is the first second baseman in Major League history to produce at least 20 homers in each of his first five big-league seasons.
Fish Wrap - Marlins 9, Giants 10
This was one of those games that most fans probably lost interest in early. What most everyone feared came to pass in the early innings. Alex Sanabia wasn't anything that resembled good, lasting only 2 complete innings and the bullpen took it from there. A Marlins fan's nightmare. So, I would guess that most casual Marlins fans went looking for other things to do things which would bring more pleasure than watching the Marlins implode. Possibly scrubbing the toilets, picking up dead animals off the street or perhaps gleefully talking to a telemarketer on the phone. The die-hard Marlins fan, while holding out little hope, had it in the back of their mind that sometimes the team will score runs in bunches and all hope was not lost. Fleeting, yes. Lost, no. So might as well keep the channel on FSFL. It is good to be a die-hard.
Let's see what happened.
We are going to skip ahead, due to time constraints, to the seventh inning. But I will do a brief recap of the Marlins scoring since, really, who cares how the Giants scored, they just scored early and often. In the Marlins half of the third, Hanley Ramirez singled to center with one out and Logan Morrison drove him home with a double to center. Which made the score, 4-1 Giants.
In the fourth, Ronny Paulino hit a solo shot to left to bring the score to 7-2 Giants.
The seventh inning began with the Giants leading 9-2. In the Marlins half of the inning, Mike Stanton led off with a double to left, off Giant's starter Jonathan Sanchez. Paulino follow with a single to center to move Stanton to third. Next up was the pitcher's spot in the order so Edwin sent to the plate none other than the legendary Donnie Murphy. Donnie "Bleeping" Murphy hit the first pitch into the left field stands for a three-run home run. The call by Rich and Tommy was priceless, they were just trying to fill air time until the point when Rich noticed that #22 on your scorecard but #1 in your heart was batting. Rich said right before the pitch: "We have a Donnie Murphy sighting." About that time he knock the ball over the wall and the two just laughed. This brought the score to 9-5 Giants. That would end Sanchez's night. Denny Bautista came on in relief and quickly dispatched Hanley and LoMo. Gaby Sanchez then struck out but the ball got away from the catcher and Gaby was safe at first. Next up was Dan Uggla, and on the second pitch he simply crushed it into the left field stands. The score was now, 9-7 Giants.
Burke Badenhop came on in relief to pitch the seventh and the Giants basically beat the ball into the ground and did next to nothing.
In the eighth the relievers ruled and neither team was able to score, which brings us to the ninth. In the top half of the ninth the Giants brought in Brian Wilson to closeout the game. Wilson sporting his freshly sharpie colored shoes went immediately to work. With one out, Hanley singled to right and LoMo followed with a double to right to put runners at second and third. Emilio Bonifacio came in to run for LoMo. It was Gaby's turn at the plate and he grounded out to short to score Hanley and Boni moved to third. So with two outs and the tying run 90 feet away, Danny took his turn at bat. Wilson decided he would rather face Danny than Wes Helms, for whatever reason. Maybe he thought that there was no way he could homer off Wilson two nights in-a-row. If this was his thinking, it would prove true. On a 3-2 count Danny smashed a ground rule double to left center to tie the game.
Clay Hensley came on to pitch the ninth for the Marlins. K-lay made it interesting but retired the Giants to keep the score, 9-9 Marlins.
So to extra innings we go. Chris Ray took the mound in relief of Wilson. Ray retired the Marlins in order. In the Giants half, K-lay wasn't so fortunate. With one out Aaron Rowand singled to center and he was followed by Edgar Renteria's infield single. Nate Schierholtz singled to load the bases with only one out . With the Marlins outfield drawn in, Andres Torres hit a ground rule single for the walk-off win.
The Marlins didn't win and that is unfortunate, but they sure made it interesting. And no doubt text messages were flying all over S. Florida in the ninth proclaiming the game was going to extra innings only to shock the recipients. But really no one who follows this team should be surprised, it's Marlins baseball. Stuff like this happens all the time.
Try it again on Thursday.
Open Thread and Ichthyomancy: Marlins at Giants (7/28)
Let's try that securing a split in the series thing again.
Alex Sanabia is the mound for the Marlins. Sanabia is still trying to get stretched out. He has gotten himself in a lot of jams but has always, for the most part, found his way out of them. He won't go deep into the game so our mighty bullpen will see action. Oh, the joys.
Jonathan Sanchez toes the rubber for the Giants. Sanchez is a fairly soft-tossing lefty. And the hits keep coming. The Marlins have seen him before and had some success. He has been known to walk his fair of hitters.
On Marlins live they will have the first showing of "Alex and Donnie's Great Adventure" so check that out.
Ichthyomancy is pretending to be ready.
Best of Luck to You!
You Might Want To Rethink That Hot Dog.
While other baseball blogs are focused on trivialities such as the looming trade deadline, we at FishStripes are tackling the subjects that really matter. Like food.
ESPN has released a complete list of pro sports stadium vendor health inspection summaries, and Sun Life Stadium didn't fare so well. In fact, the Marlins current home was the third-worst stadium in the nation as far as health inspection violations go.
Sun Life Stadium:
Miami Dolphins, Florida Marlins
Vendors with critical violations: 93%
Inspection report excerpt: In June 2009, an employee complained anonymously that small insects and other debris were blended into frozen alcoholic beverages at a stand where equipment wasn't being cleaned. When inspectors checked, they issued a critical violation for a buildup of slime inside the frozen drinks machine.
If you were wondering why that Sun Life frozen margarita cost a whopping $16, now you know. It's the price one must pay for all the extra nutrients bugs and slime build-up provide. Consider it an "algae boost" à la Jamba Juice.
Ninety-three percent of the vendors at Sun Life Stadium had major violations of health requirements at the most recent inspection. You should feel warm and fuzzy inside about that chicken finger basket and bucket of popcorn you enjoyed on Super Saturday.
I can't say my jaw dropped when I read the report. I've had a small amount of experience with food service at SLS, since Centerplate (which has the concessions contract) allows non-profit organizations to raise money for good causes by working concession stands. I was roped into had the pleasure of volunteering last season in support of a worthy cause.
My overall experience with Centerplate (then Boston Culinary Group) was good, other than being verbally abused by beefy, angry women upon check-in, but it's not surprising that the health department found a few causes for concern.
Each stand has a supervisor to make sure safety guidelines are followed, but their priorities seemed a bit skewed. For instance, workers were shouted at for failing to properly tuck in that hideous floral-print creation they are required to wear, but when I dispensed soda into a cup and pointed out the dozens of ants floating in it, the stand supervisor shrugged and said, "Oh, yeah. You have to let the spouts run until the bugs stop coming out."
Apparently an improperly tucked shirt is much greater health risk than insects crawling around in the machine that dispenses customers' beverages. Tasty!
After my experience working that homestand, I am slightly wary of concessions. Especially when the workers appear to be completely clueless, like a dude FishStripes ran into last month during the Rangers series. Craig ordered nachos, and the awkward teen disappeared into the back and returned with a bowl of plain tortilla chips. Upon seeing our quizzical looks, the young man paused, stared blankly at the chips for a moment, then said, "Ohhhh... did you want cheese on them?"
Suffice it to say, if he isn't aware that cheese is one of the two primary ingredients in nachos, he can't be counted on to recall the healthy (and legal) temperature at which to cook your hot dog.
While these health inspection violations need not cause mass panic or a boycott of stadium food, they do call into question the safety of consuming that $6 stadium dog. If you're both hungry and a germaphobe, one tip is to stick to menu items that come into the stadium factory sealed (peanuts, cracker jack, frozen lemonade, Edy's ice cream pints and bottled beverages). Those are the safer bet if you're worried about foodborne illnesses.
Then again, it's not as though stadium food has any nutritional integrity to begin with. You know what's in a hot dog, right? If we're willing to put that in our bodies, what's a little extra bacteria?
Brian Wilson's orange shoes
It seems the Marlins have taken exception to the Giants closer's choice of footwear.
If you saw Giants closer Brian Wilson’s cleats on TV tonight, then you might agree with Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez: The shoes — dayglo orange — are so ugly they’re distracting.
"A little bit too bright, too flashy," said Rodriguez, who complained to umpires at the start of the ninth inning.
"We asked if there was any rule about that. He said the rule is more intended for the sleeves and there’s no real for the shoes."
Rodriguez said Major League Baseball should institute a rule for shoes — because he said the ones Wilson wore were too distracting.
"There’s rules for jewelry and all kinds of things. Shoes like that are a little bit too much," he said.
"I think there should be a rule. They should be consistent. There’s a rule for the uniform and there should be a rule for the shoes."
Now, I'm not a guy who notices the shoes people wear, it is just something I never do. With the one exception of when I first met GameFish in person I remember explicitly the shoes she was wearing. Other than that one time, I generally don't notice.
But it was next to impossible not to notice Brian Wilson's glow in the dark orange shoes. It would be one thing if everyone on the team was wearing them, you would finally get acclimated to them. But this isn't the case with Wilson.
Those things stood out like you wouldn't believe. And Wilson has a high enough leg kick to show those puppies off. I think Edwin is right in his complaint. They were distracting to me and I wasn't trying to hit one of his pitches.
All of that said, they would be good for outfitting young trick-or-treaters on Halloween. All the cars would most definitely see them.
Do kids still walk the neighborhoods in search of candy on Halloween? They don't where I live.
[Update] Brian Wilson fined for wearing orange shoes.
Fish Wrap - Marlins 4, Giants 6
For the average Marlins fan (meaning me) this was a game where there was a lot optimism before it started. Josh Johnson was going to be on the mound and the thinking was this gave the Fish an excellent chance of winning two in a row. Not to mention he would keep the bullpen at bay. Now, everyone knew it wouldn't be easy since the Giants had Matt Cain going. Sure he is good, but if he leaves the ball out over the plate to the right Marlins hitter, it will end up in the stands. And possibly that would be enough.
The optimism soon faded in the early innings.
Let's see what happened.
The first inning didn't bode well for the Marlins. Cain retired the Fish in order on just 8 pitches. No biggie. In the bottom half of the inning JJ could never get comfortable on the mound. He used 20 pitches to finally get the Giants out. Oh, boy.
Both pitchers retired their respective sides in order in the second. Then came the third. Cain set the Marlins down 1-2-3. JJ, however, did not. With one out Andres Torres doubled to left, Freddy Sanchez moved him to third with a fly ball out to right. Aubrey Huff then doubled to left to plate Torres. Buster Posey followed with a single to right, that just fell in front of a diving Mike Stanton. Stanton, sans glove, recovered quickly to throw out Posey trying to stretch the single into a double. But not before Huff scored. After three, 2-0 Giants.
In the top half of the fifth, Wes Helms led off with a single to center. The very next batter, Cody Ross, took Cain downtown to left to tie the score. Stanton then walked and Ronny Paulino followed with the obligatory double play ground ball. JJ struck out to end the Marlins half of the inning. But everything was looking good. The offense had made up the two run deficit and the Marlins were ready to roll. Or so we thought. In the bottom half of the fifth, with two outs, Torres doubled to right. Sanchez followed with a single to left to score Torres. After five, 3-2 Giants.
Nothing much happened until the seventh when Dan Uggla hit a laser shot to the left field bleachers to tie the score. JJ suffered through the bottom of the seventh, but didn't allow the Giants to score. After seven, 3-3 Marlins.
Both starters were removed after seven innings setting up a battle of the bullpens. Talk about the Marlins sending in some guys with a toothpick to a gun fight. This went exactly as you would expect. The Giants sent in Sergio Romo who retired the Marlins in order in the eighth. The Marlins representative was Brian Sanches. On the fourth pitch of the inning from Sanches, Juan Uribe crushed a ball to center for a four bagger to give the Giants the lead. But Sanches wasn't through yet, with one out Aaron Rowand singled. The very next hitter, Edgar Renteria, took a Sanches pitch deep to left for the Giants second home run of the inning. Burke Badenhop came on and got us out of the inning. After eight, 6-3 Giants.
The Marlins offense couldn't rally for a third time. However, Danny did hit a Brian, Beach Boy, Wilson's pitch into the left field bleachers for his second home run of the night. Ending the scoring at 6-4 Giants.
Nothing about this game was going right from the beginning. I mean, when the offense keeps having to bail JJ out, that is not normal. I will say this, the bullpen didn't disappoint, they gave up the winning runs in no time at all. But they are getting better. Taylor Tankersley used two pitches Monday to give up a home run. Brian Sanches doubled that number before he gave up his. Yep, going in the right direction. At this rate they should be a solid pen by the year, oh, 2525.
We will try it again on Wednesday.





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