Fish Cap: Marlins 4, Phillies 6

Source: FanGraphs

Attendance: 44,497

Hero of the Game: Jose Reyes (.153 WPA +)

Goat of the Game: Logan Morrison (-.244 WPA +)

Play of the Game: Hector Luna singled off Mark Buerhle scoring Placido Polanco and Hunter Pence. (1.68 WPA +)

On a night when Johan Santana pitched a no-hitter despite recording ten hits on pitches outside of the strike zone, the Marlins lost a game they should have won against Philadelphia. Miami started off the month of June on the wrong foot thanks to lackluster performances from Chad Gaudin and Marlins' hitters with runners in scoring position.

The Marlins struck first this Friday night thanks to a Giancarlo Stanton double scoring Omar Infante from first. Stanton got a 2-1 curveball up in the zone from Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick and ripped it into the left-center field gap. It's nice to see that Stanton is continuing to stay on a roll. He finished 1 for 4 with a walk.

Mark Buerhle pitched looked very hittable on Friday, giving up eleven hits and four earned runs in just five innings of work. The Phillies first scored in the bottom of the first thanks former Florida Marlin Hector Luna singling in two runs. Philadelphia scored again in the fifth when Hunter Pence hit a 2-2 changeup into the left field bleachers.

The Marlins showed a little sign of life in the top of eighth when Logan Morrison and Justin Ruggiano went back-to-back off Antonio Bastardo.

The Marlins left hitter’s on-base the whole game, and it ultimately was the reason they lost this game. The Marlins tallied thirteen hits and four walks, yet only came up with four runs to show for it. The most frustrating instance of this was in the top half of the eighth. With the bases loaded and only out, neither Omar Infante nor Hanley Ramirez could drive any of the runners home.

The Marlins almost got a game-changing hit in the ninth when Greg Dobbs lined a fly ball into the center field gap. However, John Mayberry made an acrobatic catch assuring the Phillies of the win.

Today was a very frustrating day for the Marlins and their fans. Miami had many opportunities to score more runs, and no player stepped up in the clutch. This game was not fun to watch because you could see how frustrated all of the Marlins players were, simply because they knew they could do better. Oh well, at least the Heat won right? Oh wait...

Anyways, the Marlins need to put this game behind them and look onward to the next game. This shouldn't be too difficult because they are facing the Phillies again tomorrow at 4:05 PM. This game will be a battle between two left-handed starters, as Ricky Nolasco takes the mound for the Marlins, and Cole Hamels will pitch for the Phillies. Hamels has been dominant this season, so it will be interesting to see how the Miami ballclub fares against a lefty on the top of his game.