Fish Wrap - Marlins 3, Nationals 9

At about game time the skies opened up and the rains came pouring down and delayed the start of the game for three-hours.  That's right, the same amount of time as the voyage of the S.S. Minnow.  Both the Marlins and the Minnow proved to be equally successful at their appointed tasks.  Though the Minnow didn't have to persevere through as much rain.  If you went to bed at your normal hour for sleep, trust me, you did the right thing.

The Marlins got off to a decent start when in the first Hanley Ramirez went the other way with a pitch from Jason Marquis and deposited it into the right-field stands.  Giving the Marlins the early lead 1-0.

The Braves took little time to respond when in the second Ryan Zimmerman singled to center off Marlins starter Alex Sanabia.  The next hitter, Adam Dunn, doubled on the first pitch he saw to drive in Zimmerman and tie the score at 1 all.

In the very next inning, the Nationals took the lead which they would never relinquish.  With one out, Alberto Gonzalez singled to center and Roger Bernadina followed with a bunt single to put runners on first and second.  Zimmerman took his turn in the batter's box and crushed a ball to left-center that knockout the "M" on the Sun Life Stadium sign.  4-1 Nationals.

Both starters settled down and pitched scoreless baseball until the sixth.  With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Cameron Maybin doubled to center.  Brett Hayes watched a couple of pitches and then found one he liked which he put over the left-field wall to bring the score to 4-3 Nationals.  The Marlins faithful were celebrating thinking that the Fish were going to make a game of this after all.  We would soon learn about the Big D.  (D = Disappointment)

Brian Sanches came on in relief in the seventh, if you can call it that.  Justin Maxwell opened the inning for the Nats by hitting a routine ground ball to Chad Tracy who airmailed the throw to first allowing Maxwell to reach first on an error.  Sanches then uncorked a 57 ft. splitter for a wild pitch to put Maxwell on third.  Three pitches later Sanches decided to go with the 57 ft. splitter again and the wild pitch allowed a run to score.  With two outs in the inning, Bernadina walked and stole second.  Zimmerman followed suit with a walk of his own.  So with two outs and two on, and the Chief not wanting to throw 57 ft. splitter again he grooved a fast ball over the middle of the plate to Adam Dunn.  That didn't work.  Dunn hit a thunderous shot over the center-field fence that I don't think has landed yet.  8-3 Nationals.

The Nats would add another run in the ninth, but it wasn't needed at all.

Pretty much it was a sorry game all the way around.  The pitching sucked, the hitting sucked, the fielding sucked, the field conditions sucked and the weather sucked.  But other than that, I guess it was OK.

Try it again tomorrow.