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The way things were going heading into this game, it would've surprised exactly no one if Tom Koehler got shelled, the Marlins bats were silenced, and the Braves once again beat the Fish and swept them for the second time this season.
Except that didn't happen.
The Marlins finally did what they were supposed to do against a team like Atlanta, beating them on the mound and at the plate en route to a 7-3 victory.
This was the Derek Dietrich show for all the right reasons through seven, as he came a triple short of the cycle up at this dish and accounted for four of Miami's seven runs, a career best for him. Then he was front and center again for a wrong reason as he took a foul ball to the side of the head while he was sitting in the dugout, falling hard to the ground.
It was a scary few minutes as Dietrich lay there virtually motionless while the trainers tended to him and his teammates tried their best to continue to play. It was interesting timing that Marcell Ozuna crushed his solo shot to center right when Dietrich popped up to one knee. Dietrich would eventually head to the locker room under his own power, as of this writing there is no further update on his condition. Adeiny Hechavarria, who had the day off prior to the incident, was installed at second base for the ninth.
Tom Koehler was...well, it is hard to say that he was great because the walks were still there with his patented five on the evening, but he was certainly better than usual through seven, giving up only the one run to that point. Rich Waltz put it succinctly on the broadcast "...but what I think Koehler has been doing has been getting bad contact, early contact, and quick outs." Koehler would induce ten groundball outs in this one, but didn't record his first pair of strikeouts in the game until the seventh inning.
In the eighth, Koehler walked his fifth batter, the pinch hitting rookie Mallex Smith, then Ender Inciarte singled to move Smith to third. Smith would score on an error by Derek Dietrich, and the Braves would score again on a sac fly by Jeff Francouer off of Kyle Barraclough who came on in relief of Koehler, getting the Bravos as close as three runs. Bear Klaw would sandwich that sac fly with two strikeouts, however, and AJ Ramos sealed the deal in the ninth.
Miguel Rojas added a sac fly of his own, and Chris Johnson pinch hit for Justin Bour and picked up an RBI single to complete the scoring for the Marlins.
The Marlins return home for four against the Pittsburgh Pirates tomorrow, first pitch at 7:10 ET, Jeff Locke vs. Justin Nicolino.
Source: FanGraphs
Attendance: 50,247
Hero of the game: Derek Dietrich (.433)
Goat of the game: Errant foul ball Julio Teheran (-.155)
Play of the game: DD homerun in the sixth; Justin Bour scores (.249)