Sometimes you're going to get blown out. Sometimes you're going to run into a future hall of famer who has his stuff working. Sometimes your 4th starter (regardless of what the order in the rotation says - he's really not #2) is going to get roughed up.
Fortunately for the Marlins it took until game #16 this year. For the first 15 games they weren't blown out. They blew out a lot of teams. They lost some close games. But they were at least in every game.
That changed last night. It happens. Hopefully they'll be able to turn it around this weekend against the Reds.
It was nice to watch Pedro in person last night. I'd never seen him live before. What surprised me the most was his velocity. I don't think I saw any of his pitches clocked at more than 85 MPH on the stadium's radar gun (was it any different on the radar gun they show on TV)? Pedro did seem to be mixing up his pitches quite well and that kept the Marlins' hitters off balance all night.
The stadium experience was a little different than it is for most Marlins' games. On the way into the stadium I noticed a number of people tailgating, which is a little unusual - but certainly welcomed - for a weeknight game. The crowd was also large - around 27,000 folks. What wasn't quite so pleasant was the ratio of Mets to Marlins fans. I'm sure it came through again on television last night, but the crowd was heavily pro-Mets, especially when the Mets took their large early lead.
It would be fine if the Mets' fans didn't seem like they were looking to start a fight so often. Actually, there were a number of near fights in the stands - most involving one woman in particular who seemed ready to fight nearly anybody.
I suppose I'm ranting now like I said I wouldn't, so I'll stop. It is a much different experience to attend a South Florida sporting event when the opposition is a team from New York. I'll just say that.
Oh, and later I hope to have a picture of the Pedro Martinez look-a-like who visited our section late in the game.