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The Miami Marlins came away with their second victory in as many attempts in the young 2014 season, though this time they narrowly escaped the Colorado Rockies. In stark contrast to last night's blowout, the Fish were just as held back offensively by Rockies starter Brett Anderson as Colorado was by Nathan Eovaldi, who posted a strong 2014 debut.
Eovaldi looked early on like he was the best player on the field, firing off 97 mph fastballs left and right en route to five strikeouts through three shutout innings. But as he traversed the Rockies' lineup a second time around, he unfortunately came away with a few scars, as the Rockies put up two runs on two hits and a walk in the fourth inning. After the third, Eovaldi only managed one strikeout versus one walk, but the fourth was the only damage he suffered as he exited the sixth inning with the game tied. Overall, Eovaldi struck out six batters and gave up two runs on six hits and a walk, topping off a solid outing to start the 2014 campaign.
Unlike last year, the Marlins tried to help him with some runs. The two players with the heaviest platoon splits on the team, Garrett Jones and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, got the offense rolling to start by singling and doubling respectively off of the lefty Anderson. Adeiny Hechavarria later hit a sacrifice fly to drive home Salty, but Marcell Ozuna ruined the fun by trying to tag up and getting thrown out.
The game remained tied until the sixth, when the Marlins pounced on Anderson for two runs, starting with a Reed Johnson pinch-hit double. Giacnarlo Stanton later drove him in on a critical situation in which he grounded into a near-double play but beat out the low throw to first base to bring home the lead runner at third. Stanton later stole third and scored on a Casey McGehee single.
Mike Dunn struggled in the eighth and nearly lost the inning, but A.J. Ramos came in for the second night in a row and cleaned up a mess with two runners on. Then Steve Cishek earned his first save of the season with an easy 1-2-3 inning. Miami is 2-0 and will look for the sweep on Thursday against the Rockies.
Source: FanGraphs}