It was more interleague play for the Fish as they opened up their homestand against the Texas Rangers Tuesday night at Sun Life Stadium.
Josh Johnson made the start for the Marlins and was brilliant as usual; he went seven innings and allowed just one run on four hits to the Rangers' potent lineup. Three of JJ's four hits came in the first inning as Texas put up their lone run on three straight two-out singles by Ian Kinsler, Vladimir Guerrero and Josh Hamilton.
The Marlins didn't fare a whole lot better against C.J. Wilson than the Rangers did against Josh. @str8edgeracer gave up just two hits in his six innings of work, and didn't allow a run until the sixth inning. It was Hanley Ramirez, who was 2-for-3 with a walk in the game, who provided the only offense for the Fish. Hanley blasted a two-run homer in the sixth to give the Marlins the lead.
That was all the scoring the Fish would scrape together, and sadly it wasn't enough of a cushion for the bullpen. Brian Sanches tossed a scoreless inning, but Leo Nunez couldn't preserve JJ's lead in the ninth.
Josh Hamilton singled off of Nunez, stole second, and advanced to third on a groundout. With Hamilton just 90 feet away from tying the game, Leo walked Julio Borbon before former Fish Matt Treanor stepped up to the plate. Treanor had no mercy on his former club, and hit a two-run triple to put the Rangers up 3-2.
With the save blown, the Fish went quietly in the bottom of the ninth, and dropped the series opener to Texas.