Fish Wrap - Marlins 3, Diamondbacks 2

What was expected to pitching duel, turned into exactly that.  Fortunately, the Marlins had Ricky "second half" Nolasco on the mound.

The Marlins tried to put together some early momentum against Dan "Captain Morgan" Haren, but to no avail.  The Marlins had the leadoff hitter on base in the first two innings, but couldn't capitalize.  Then the third rolled around when Hanley Ramirez drew a one out walk and Jorge singled him to third.  Dan Uggla would follow with a two-strike hit off the end of the bat to single home Hanley and move Jorge to second.  Then Cody Ross joined in on the RBI party and singled to right to drive home Cantu.  The Marlins jumped out to the early lead with the score being 2-0 Marlins.

Ricky Nolasco in the first few innings was trying to understand what was going to be called a strike in the very small strike zone by home plate umpire Rob Drake.  Drake is known to have a hitter friendly zone, but Ricky was a quick learner.  Or at least he appeared to have a handle on it until the fourth, at which point Ricky got a little too much of the plate.  In the fourth,  with one out, Miguel Montero singled to left and with two outs Adam LaRoche singled Montero to third.  Stephen Drew a walk to load the bases.  Then the weirdness took place, Gerardo Parra hit a soft bouncing grounder that somehow escape Nolasco's glove and by the time it got to Danny, everyone was safe.  Ricky then would retire Haren for the final out of the inning.  2-1 Marlins.

Both starters would retire the sides in order until the seventh.  

In the seventh, Chris Coghlan led off with a single.  Jorge hit a ground rule double (actually I think the proper term is a rule book double, but we aren't very proper here at FishStripes) to put Coghlan at third.  Then Danny did his two-strike soft hitting magic again and drove home Chris with a broken bat infield single.  3-1 Marlins.

The D'backs would answer back in the bottom of seventh when Drew doubled to left and Parra walked.  With two runners on and no outs, Augie Ojeda successfully sacrificed the runners over.  Chris Young grounded out to short to score Drew.  3-2 Marlins.

But that would end the scoring thanks to Clay Hensley striking out the side, in order, in the eighth and Leo Nunez throwing a perfect 1-2-3 inning in the ninth.

When it was said and done, the Marlins have evened the series.