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The Marlins had a promising start to the game as the first two men reached in Ichiro! (walk) and Martin Prado (single). Christian Yelich struck out and Marcell Ozuna popped out, but Justin Bour recalled the clutch nature of his grand slam from a couple of nights ago and hit a sharp single away from the shift allowing Ichiro! to score on a close play at the plate, 1-0 Fish. Colin Rea then struck out Realmuto but the Marlins had the lead coming away from the inning.
The Padres struck back almost immediately. After getting Jon Jay out, Chen served up a big fly to Wil Myers and the game was tied 1-1. Matt Kemp almost made it back to back, hitting a ground rule double in the following AB. Chen would then fan Yangervis Solarte and Derek Norris to end the threat.
The Marlins offense exploded in the third. Ichiro! started things off by slapping a hit , inching him closer to 3,000 at 25 shy. Prado made sure that the hit counted for something other than the record by smacking his second homerun of the year, cushioning the Fish lead at 3-1. Yelich singled immediately. Ozuna made an out but then Bour, for the second time in the evening, hit successfully against the shift and it was first and third. Realmuto hit a ball to Solarte, but Adam Rosales dropped a clear double play ball and Yelich scored to make it 4-1 Fish. Dietrich smacked a ball up the middle that hit the umpire and was declared a dead ball, so the bases were juiced. Bags full of Fish as we like to say in the game threads but not for long as Adeiny Hechavarria then cleared the bases with a triple over the head of center fielder Jon Jay. Ichiro! added to the fun with an infield single that scored yet another run, bringing him 24 away infield hit. Seven runs in, Rea out, 8-1 Fish at this point.
Chen felt bad, so he served up a solo shot to Matt Kemp the following inning to allow the Padres to inch closer, 8-2.
Familiar punching bag Brad Hand came into the game and he did not disappoint. Well, at first he did, striking out the side in the fourth, BUT THEN in the fifth, this delightful sequence:
- Dietrich double.
- Hech double.
- Chen sacrifice.
- Ichiro! walk.
- Prado single.
- Yelich double.
- Ozuna walk.
- Bour single.
Notes
- The Marlins offense scored 13 runs on 19 hits today. They had three total hits on Sunday and scored no runs. Baseball is a crazy game.
- Chen would go six innings and strikeout out seven batters, but gave up a season high four home runs, all four of which amazingly were solo shots.
- Nick Wittgren, Brian Ellington and Mike Dunn would combine for three scoreless innings to close out the ballgame. I guess the lone downer as far as the game went was having to use the pen at all.
- Prado might get tomorrow's game off after taking a ball off the kneecap and coming out of the game for Miguel Rojas.
- Ichiro! with his two hits is now a mere 24 hits away from 3,000, and two hits away from tying Pete Rose's mark of 4,256 hits (MLB/Japan combined).
- Christian Bethancourt pitched the ninth inning. He is the back-up catcher. The most amazing thing about this is not that he had to pitch in this game, but that this wasn't even the first time he had to pitch this season. Also, reliever Luis Perdomo pinch ran for the injured Travis Jankowski. He stole a base. Oh, those wacky Padres!
Source: FanGraphs