Fish Wrap - Marlins 3, Mets 4

The Marlins were in the Concrete Jungle where dreams are made of (which makes perfect grammatical sense) Friday night to kick off their nine-game road trip with a series against the Mets.

Knuckle baller R. A. Dickey made the start for New York, and the Fish sent Anibal Sanchez to the hill to see if he could make it nine straight starts giving up two earned runs or less, and continue Florida's winning ways against New York.

Well, he couldn't.

The Fish gave Anibal an early lead when Cody Ross hit a two-out triple and scored on a single by Cameron Maybin. They added two more runs in the third inning, loading up the bases with nobody out on singles from Anibal, Cogz and Gaby. Hanley drove in two on a fielder’s choice to make it 3-0, but got thrown out at home when Jorge Cantu singled, and two runs were all the Fish could extract from the inning.

And then the Marlins bats decided to take a six-inning nap.

In the bottom of the third, the Mets got two runs back. Dickey helped his own cause when he lined a hit off of first base to score Ruben Tejada, who had doubled. Jose Reyes followed with a single, advanced to third on a double play, and scored on a double by Jason Bay.

Anibal ran into more trouble in the sixth when he walked David Wright and gave up a double to Rod Barajas. Jeff Fancoeur lined a single to tie up the game, and Dickey promptly untied it, driving in his second run of the game on another single to make it 4-3.

Anibal walked Jose Reyes to load the bases, and his night was over after five and two-thirds innings, having given up four runs on nine hits. Tankersley came out of the bullpen and recorded the final out of the sixth, inducing a ground ball from Angel Pagan.

Tim Wood handled a scoreless seventh and eighth inning, but in the meantime the Marlins got zero done against Pedro Feliciano and Elmer Dessens.

Things got interesting for the Fish with two out in the ninth, when Francisco Rodriguez gave up an infield single to Chris Coghlan and walked Gaby Sanchez before a wild pitch advanced them to second and third. But Hanley grounded to third to end the game, and the Fish dropped the series opener to New York.

Cue Alicia Keys.