Urena Dominates in Marlins Win 3-0

The Marlins picked up a big win Sunday afternoon, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0. It's Miami's first series win since defeating sweeping the Pirates in mid-August. The Marlins owned the Dodgers this season going 6-1 against the NL West leaders.

Jose Urena (4-6) pitched an absolute gem in the victory going 8.2 innings. He didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning, and was one strike away from his first complete game shutout of his career before Josh Reddick singled to end Urena's day.

There wasn't a whole lot of offense in the game, as both Urena and Dodgers starting pitcher Kenta Maeda were dominant early on. The game stayed scoreless until Ichiro Suzuki singled to spark the Marlins offense. Martin Prado singled advancing Ichiro to second, and then Christian Yelich singled advancing Prado to third and scoring Suzuki to give Miami a 1-0 lead. Prado would score on the very next pitch after a Justin Bour sacrifice fly to deep right giving the Marlins a 2-0 lead after four.

Joc Pederson ended Urena's perfect game in the fifth inning with a single to center, but failed to score as Jose continued to mix his pitches well. Los Angeles struggled to make solid contact on Urena's off-speed pitches and were forced into 13 ground-outs in the game.

Prado lead off the bottom of the sixth with a single and scored after Yelich hit a bloop single to right. Dodgers outfielder Josh Reddick overran the ball advancing Prado to third and the relay from Corey Seager to third base flew into the stands allowing Prado to score. Yelich was able to reach third after the two Dodgers errors on the play and Miami led 3-0.

Maeda (14-9) was taken out of the game after the sixth inning for the Dodgers. He allowed three runs on eight hits, and only recorded two strikeouts. It was the least amount of strikeouts recorded in a start all season for the Dodgers ace.

Urena continued to pitch well into the ninth, but was relieved after the Reddick single by A.J. Ramos. Urena allowed just four hits and recorded four strikeouts in his brilliant pitching display. It would have been his first career complete game shutout in the Majors --- he had recorded five complete games and three shutouts during his minor league stint.

With the win Miami closes the gap a little, but still has a lot of ground to make up in the wild card race. This week the Marlins travel to Atlanta and Philadelphia in must-win games.

WPA Graph:

Source: FanGraphs

Hero of the Game: Jose Urena (+.431)

Goat of the Game: Yasmani Grandal (-.126)

Play of the Game: Christian Yelich RBI-single in fourth (+.152)