The Fish kicked off their mini homestand Friday night, and put a bit of a beating on the Astros, to the tune of a 9-0 win.
Anibal Sanchez was outstanding. The Astros only scraped together three hits off of him, and he held them scoreless on just 88 pitches through seven innings of work. Sanchy was also unaffected by a 37-minute rain delay in the top of the sixth, and likely would have pitched the eighth inning if he hadn't decided to have a little fun running the bases in the seventh.
J.A. Happ didn't have a terrible game himself, but he lost the game in the first inning nonetheless. Hanley Ramirez (2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI) doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch, then scored on Emilio Bonifacio's sac fly. That was all the offense that was needed to win the game, but the Marlins decided to keep scoring anyway. Eight more times, to be exact.
After the rain delay, Happ gave up a single to Bonifacio and a walk to Gaby Sanchez, and Dan Uggla drove them both in with a single to make it 3-0, Fish. That ended his night, and Jeff Fulchino got the call from the pen in the seventh. The Marlins scored four runs off of the reliever in 2/3 of an inning, including an RBI single by Anibal Sanchez.
Will Ohman pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Fish, and in the bottom of the frame, Cody Ross and Hector Luna hit back-to-back jacks against Fernando Abad to make it 9-0.
Brian Sanches pitched a perfect ninth, and the Marlins are above .500 for the first time since the first of August.