Fish Wrap: Marlins 5, Astros 0

The Marlins riding the left arm of Brad Hand took the series opener against the Astros. And not to mention they are now winners of two games in-a-row. Oh sure, it is a meager win streak but all win streaks start off small. Also, the Fish improved to 6-3 in their last nine games played. So let's briefly see how it happened.

The Marlins got on the board early when in the second Mike Cameron led off with a walk and Mike Stanton followed by hitting a backup slider, that backed up right over the plate, into the blue seats in left. Making the score 2-0 Marlins.

That was all Hand needed to secure the win. Hand no-hit the Astros for 5.1 innings before Angel Sanchez broke it up with weak ground ball single to center. Brad would go 7 innings, allowing only 2 hits, no runs and walking 3. Still needs a little work on his command, but the young Mr. Hand is definitely looking like he will be a fixture in the Marlins rotation in the future.

The Marlins added on in the fifth when Logan Morrison hit a flair to left that Jason Michaels dove and missed for a double to score Emilio Bonifacio and Hanley Ramirez. Score was now, Marlins 4, Astros 0.

In the sixth Omar infante drove in John Buck with a single to left to finalize the scoring at the Marlins 5, Astros 0.

Randy Choate pitched a scoreless inning in the eighth as did Steve Cishek in the ninth to close the game out in the rain.

This game was a real rarity for the Marlins, the pitching was in total command, the offense was scoring and the outcome was never in doubt. We haven't seen too many of these recently. Actually we haven't seen any of these in the last month or so, that is, until last night.

It was a good night.