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Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 14,916
Hero of the Game: Justin Ruggiano (0.169 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Jose Fernandez (-0.334 WPA)
Play of the Game: Xavier Paul singled to right field. Jay Bruce scored. Todd Frazier and Xavier Paul advance on error by Giancarlo Stanton. (-0.154 WPA)
The Miami Marlins were supposed to have a good ol' fashioned pitcher's duel with the Cincinnati Reds. The Marlins were sending out Jose Fernandez, the team's fantastic phenom pitcher, versus the Reds' pitching prospect and minor league destroyer of worlds Tony Cignari. It was supposed to be a fun matchup between two top prospect pitchers of interest.
It turned into a complete blowout by the Reds. Cincinnati jumped on Fernandez in the fourth inning, forcing through four runs on four hits and a walk in the inning. The Reds sent eight men to the plate, including a few that hurt Fernandez in the third inning when he allowed a seemingly inconspicuous two-out run. He followed that up with a series of walks and singles, capped at the end by a double by Shin-Soo Choo to put the game well out of reach.
Fernandez still ended the game with four strikeouts, but his nightmare inning helped contribute to an ugly three walks as well. His control seemed to be off all inning, as he was wild around the plate and was not able to spot his pitches as usual. He ended up giving up six runs in four innings before giving way to John Maine, who amazingly allowed another five runs in two innings.
Meanwhile, the Marlins' offense was its usual self. The Fish mustered six hits, two of them by Justin Ruggiano. Ruggiano hit his second home run of the season off of Cignari, but it was a solo shot and it was the only Marlins run on the night. The Fish had three instances in which they got two baserunners aboard and three instances (the same three) in which they had a runner at least at second base. All resulted in outs to end their respective innings as the Marlins failed to capitalize on the few instances of offense that they had.
The Fish will look to recuperate from the ugly loss tomorrow night with Kevin Slowey on the mound.