Fish Wrap - Marlins 9, Giants 10

This was one of those games that most fans probably lost interest in early.  What most everyone feared came to pass in the early innings.  Alex Sanabia wasn't anything that resembled good, lasting only 2 complete innings and the bullpen took it from there.  A Marlins fan's nightmare.  So, I would guess that most casual Marlins fans went looking for other things to do things which would bring more pleasure than watching the Marlins implode.  Possibly scrubbing the toilets, picking up dead animals off the street or perhaps gleefully talking to a telemarketer on the phone.  The die-hard Marlins fan, while holding out little hope, had it in the back of their mind that sometimes the team will score runs in bunches and all hope was not lost.  Fleeting, yes.  Lost, no. So might as well keep the channel on FSFL.  It is good to be a die-hard.

Let's see what happened.

We are going to skip ahead, due to time constraints, to the seventh inning.  But I will do a brief recap of the Marlins scoring since, really, who cares how the Giants scored, they just scored early and often.  In the Marlins half of the third, Hanley Ramirez singled to center with one out and Logan Morrison drove him home with a double to center.  Which made the score, 4-1 Giants.

In the fourth, Ronny Paulino hit a solo shot to left to bring the score to 7-2 Giants.

The seventh inning began with the Giants leading 9-2.  In the Marlins half of the inning, Mike Stanton led off with a double to left, off Giant's starter Jonathan Sanchez.  Paulino follow with a single to center to move Stanton to third.  Next up was the pitcher's spot in the order so Edwin sent to the plate none other than the legendary Donnie Murphy. Donnie "Bleeping" Murphy hit the first pitch into the left field stands for a three-run home run.  The call by Rich and Tommy was priceless, they were just trying to fill air time until the point when Rich noticed  that #22 on your scorecard but #1 in your heart was batting.  Rich said right before the pitch: "We have a Donnie Murphy sighting."  About that time he knock the ball over the wall and the two just laughed.  This brought the score to 9-5 Giants. That would end Sanchez's night.  Denny Bautista came on in relief and quickly dispatched Hanley and LoMo.  Gaby Sanchez then struck out but the ball got away from the catcher and Gaby was safe at first.  Next up was Dan Uggla, and on the second pitch he simply crushed it into the left field stands.  The score was now, 9-7 Giants.

Burke Badenhop came on in relief to pitch the seventh and the Giants basically beat the ball into the ground and did next to nothing.

In the eighth the relievers ruled and neither team was able to score, which brings us to the ninth.  In the top half of the ninth the Giants brought in Brian Wilson to closeout the game.  Wilson sporting his freshly sharpie colored shoes went immediately to work.  With one out, Hanley singled to right and LoMo followed with a double to right to put runners at second and third.  Emilio Bonifacio came in to run for LoMo.  It was Gaby's turn at the plate and he grounded out to short to score Hanley and Boni moved to third.  So with two outs and the tying run 90 feet away, Danny took his turn at bat.  Wilson decided he would rather face Danny than Wes Helms, for whatever reason.  Maybe he thought that there was no way he could homer off Wilson two nights in-a-row.  If this was his thinking, it would prove true.  On a 3-2 count Danny smashed a ground rule double to left center to tie the game.

Clay Hensley came on to pitch the ninth for the Marlins.  K-lay made it interesting but retired the Giants to keep the score, 9-9 Marlins.

So to extra innings we go.  Chris Ray took the mound in relief of Wilson.  Ray retired the Marlins in order.  In the Giants half, K-lay wasn't so fortunate.  With one out Aaron Rowand singled to center and he was followed by Edgar Renteria's infield single.  Nate Schierholtz singled to load the bases with only one out .  With the Marlins outfield drawn in, Andres Torres hit a ground rule single for the walk-off win.

The Marlins didn't win and that is unfortunate, but they sure made it interesting.  And no doubt text messages were flying all over S. Florida in the ninth proclaiming the game was going to extra innings only to shock the recipients.  But really no one who follows this team should be surprised, it's Marlins baseball.  Stuff like this happens all the time.

Try it again on Thursday.