It was the long ball and a dude named Scott Rolen that did the Marlins in.
The Fish opened a four-game set with the Reds at Sun Life Stadium Monday night, and continued their new trend of dropping the first game of every series. Ricky Nolasco was on the hill for Florida and Johnny Cueto made the start for Cincinnati.
The Reds grabbed a 2-run lead in the second when Scott Rolen hit his first home run of the game (it's never a good sign when they have to be numbered), and Laynce Nix added an RBI single.
In the bottom of the inning, Cueto hit Dan Uggla and loaded the bases on singles to John Baker and Cody Ross. Gaby Sanchez grounded into a double play to score one run, but that’s all the Marlins could manage to extract from a bases loaded, no out situation.
Things went downhill a bit for Cueto in the bottom of the third. Maybin singled and Hanley walked before Jorge Cantu continued his campaign to have RBI in every game this season, and doubled to drive them both in. With Uggla at bat, Cueto balked to advance Jorge to third, and Uggs doubled to drive in the fourth run of the game.
Ricky must not have been feeling the whole prosperity thing the Fish had going for him, because the very next inning he gave up home run #2 to Scott Rolen. In the sixth, Ricky served up his third long ball of the game, a two-run shot to Orlando Cabrera to give the Reds a 5-4 lead.
Cueto was finished after five innings, which was good news for the Marlins, considering the Reds bullpen has stunk even worse than theirs so far this season. Unfortunately, they didn't stink enough.
With two on in the seventh, Ronnie Paulino pinch hit for John Baker and hit an RBI single to tie the game.
After Ricky gave up five runs in six innings, the Marlins bullpen took over and managed to hold the score for three innings for the second game in a row. Tim Wood made three quick outs in the seventh, Clay Hensley pitched out of a jam in the eighth, and Leo Nunez worked a 1-2-3 ninth.
With one out in the bottom of the inning, the Fish had a good chance to walk off. They loaded the bases, but Paulino struck out and Cody grounded out to push the game into extras.
After proving to be the most valuable arm out of the ‘pen through the first week of the season, it was The Hopper who ended the bullpen's scoreless inning streak. He issued his first walk of the season to Joey Votto and gave up his first run--an RBI single to none other than the pesky Scott Rolen to put the Reds in the back in the lead.
This time, they held on. The Fish went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the tenth, and dropped game one to the Reds.