Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 23,009
Hero of the Game: Jose Reyes (0.637 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Mike Dunn (-0.210 WPA)
Play of the Game: Jose Reyes singled to right (fly ball). Rob Brantly scored the winning run in the tenth. (0.397 WPA)
The Miami Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves athome on Tuesday night. This one in extra innings. The rubber game on Wednesday will decide the winner of this three game series as the Braves beat the Fish on Monday night. The pitching matchup for the finale is stellar. The Marlins send Josh Johnson to the bump. While the Braves counter with Kris Medlen.
Jose Reyes was the hero in this one as he brought home Rob Brantly for a walk off in the bottom of the tenth. It should have never gotten to extra innings however as the Marlins took a 3-0 lead into the last of the ninth. Steve Cishek and Mike Dunn gave up the lead in that ninth inning. Neverthless, Nathan Eovaldi deserved a better fate. Even though his team won, he threw eight shut out innings. "A very spectacular game for him," Ozzie Guillen said. "No doubt this kid has a good arm."
Just Enough Offense
The Marlins offense did not do much on this night. But it was enough for the win. The hitting star was John Buck. The veteran catcher went 2-3 and drove in two runs. He hit a triple in the third inning off of Braves starter Paul Maholm. And eventually scored the game's first run when Gorkys Hernandez singled to right. However, the big blow was in the seventh when Buck hit a two run home run to right field off of reliever Peter Moylan. Buck also walked once in this game.
Jose Reyes did his part collecting three hits in his five at bats (one double and two singles). And Austin Kearns came off the bench and hit a double in the seventh inning. Again, just enough offense to win the game.
Ozzie Has No Complaints About His Closer
After the game, the Marlins manager would not complain about the blown save by Steve Cishek. Instead, he reminded the media how good Cishek has been this year. In fact, he gave an indication he would go back to Cishek Wednesday night if needed. While Cishek's struggles against left handed batters is well chronicled, he might have faced to toughest set of lefties in the majors on Tuesday night. In this order, the young reliever pitched to Jason Heyward, Chipper Jones, and Freddie Freeman, before facing his last batter of the night, (a right handed batter) Dan Uggla. Not too shabby at all. The result was the following: double, walk, strikeout, then single.