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Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 25,118
Hero of the Game: Jose Fernandez (0.197 WPA)
Goat of the Game: Adeiny Hechavarria / Jeff Mathis (-0.017 WPA)
Play of the Game: Giancarlo Stanton singled to center in the first inning. Chris Coghlan and Donovan Solano scored. Christian Yelich advanced to third base. (+0.118 WPA)
The Miami Marlins jumped out to an early lead in the first inning when Chris Coghlan, Donovan Solano, and Christian Yelich combined to load the bases early in the game with no outs. Giancarlo Stanton singled home two runners, and Placido Polanco hit a sacrifice fly to put the Marlins up early, 3-0.
From then on, the story of the game was clearly Jose Fernandez. In what was his second-to-last start of the season, Fernandez dominated again, striking out nine batters and walking just two in seven innings pitched. He could not have cruised any more easily in the first four innings, as he whiffed six hitters in those innings and retired them all in a row. The party was slightly ruined by a two-out walk to Adam LaRoche on some questionable balls. One inning later, Zachary Walters, making his Major League debut, "got the best" of Fernandez on a dribbling infield single to get aboard and represent the first and only hit allowed by the young starter tonight.
The rest of the way, Fernandez dominated. His fastball was sizzling at 97 mph tonight. He got 15 whiffs in 94 pitches thrown, which translates to a fantastic 16 percent swinging strike rate. He threw 27 balls versus 19 called strikes, once again displaying the consistent pounding of the strike zone by the rookie phenom. He was effortless in his work and wanted, of course, to go out and pitch the eighth inning thanks to a relatively light workload. He was sat down in favor of Chad Qualls, but the Marlins had to be happy with yet another spectacular performance among a season's worth of them from Fernandez.
The Marlins added four more inconsequential runs, as the Fish were comfortably in the lead against Dan Haren as early as the third inning. The Marlins scored three of their runs after the first on home runs. Logan Morrison launched one of the longest homers we have seen all season, 460 feet into the upper part of the home run porhc in right field in Marlins Park. Later in the game, Giancarlo Stanton went deep as well to the green wall close to the Monstrosity. The Fish win the opener 7-0.