Attendance: 20,057
Hero of the Game: Giancarlo Stanton (0.397 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Justin Ruggiano (-0.197 WPA)
Play of the Game: Giancarlo Stanton homered in the ninth inning. (+0.443 WPA)
The Miami Marlins found themselves behind early in the game and with Dan Haren of the Washington Nationals dominating them. Haren struck out seven through six innings of work with only one walk, as he sneaked another solid outing against Miami amid his terrible 2013 season.
Meanwhile, the Marlins were not getting as strong of a performance from Jose Fernandez. The team's lone All-Star got four strikeouts versus three walks in six innings of work, and he ended up allowing the sole run to the Nationals. Bryce Harper walked to lead off the fourth inning and got to third base on a Adam LaRoche single. A Jayson Werth sacrifice fly brought home the run, putting the Fish in the hole.
Fernandez's start was not as strong as Haren's, but the National's somewhat underwhelming offense was still held to just one run. A.J. Ramos, Ryan Webb, and Dan Jennings each took an inning to maintain the one-run situation, and they combined to do a good job. The group struck out five batters and walked two in their three innings,
This left the Fish in the ninth inning with a chance to tie it, but it did not take long for the Marlins to get to the point. Giancarlo Stanton took a 1-2 pitch deep to left field and over the retired Jackie Robinson number and into the lower level of the Budweiser Bowtie Bar in Marlins Park. Stanton's tenth homer of the year was destroyed, and the only thing more wonderful about it was Jose Fernandez's ecstatic reaction to it (watch the homer here)
That tied the game up, and after a clean inning by Steve Cishek in the tenth, the Fish came out and beat the Nationals on one of the more odd innings in their season thus far. Adeiny Hechavarria reached base on an error by Chad Tracy, then got to second base on the play. Jeff Mathis inexplicably drew a legitimate walk. Placido Polanco moved the runners forward, and that forced the Nationals to intentionally walk Justin Ruggiano. This led to Ed Lucas hitting what initially appeared to be a tailor-made double-play ball to second base, but the throw to first came just shy of beaing Lucas to the bag. The Marlins took the win on the double play attempt, and they win the second game of this three-game series as well.