Marlins-Nationals Live Blog!

Hey everyone (all three of you)! The live blog is delayed as I procure dinner, so I’ll be missing the first inning or so, but I’ll be back in by 8 pm!

8:01: …and I jump in and we’re up 4-2, and John Baker just tags one the other way for a home run as soon as I turn it on. 6-2 Fish!

8:04: The broadcast just showed two guys in all red suits and red and white wigs. One guy was downing a Budweiser right through it. Weird, but awesome. Waltz and Tommy loved it.

8:07: Apparently Cameron Maybin hit a triple. Hope that stroke continues.

8:09: And then Maybin hits a long fly, looked like it had a shot, but it was warning track blast.

8:12: Nice K by Sean West to start the inning. Justin Maxwell had no idea about his breaking ball.

8:15: Ryan Zimmerman with a huge triple. Sigh.

8:17: Ugly play off a hard hit ball. West missed a defensive play there, but it would have been hard.

8:18: Then Josh Willingham CRUSHES a pitch. West, you’re not helping. YOU’RE NOT HELPING!

8:21: Here’s a thought: stop stupidly giving things up. Four pitch walk, wild pitch. You’re killing me, Sean.

8:26: No more West tonight. Gee, thanks Sean.

8:31: Burke Badenhop in to replace West. Craig Mintervini does a piece on Chris Coghlan, saying that he’s an average left fielder now. Uh, I don’t think so. I’ve watched, he’s looked not so great. And he’s -7 last I checked by UZR. Not so much.

8:35: Good 1-2-3 inning by the Hopper.

8:40: Tommy, let’s cut the analogies, OK? I think we can all get how baseball works. To be fair, at least it was somewhat reasonable.

8:42: Let’s not praise people for getting outs, no matter how “productive” they are.

8:56: Shame we lost that inning after getting a run off a Baker single. But if Badenhop can get an easy two innings, I’ll be OK.

8:59: Sloppy play, as Tommy said. That error is killer.

9:02: Huge K by the Hopper. One more out.

9:06: Johnson with the diving stop, Hopper the cover, great play and we escape the inning.

9:12: Nice, got a little inning going. I wish Coghlan could show some more of that speed that he shows taking an extra base. Wonder what his EqBRR are this year.

9:16: Couple base hits, and we score twice on the inning. Of late the team’s had its share of long innings and rallies, I doubt that that’s going to be sustainable.

9:27: Looks like they like Brian Sanches in the 7th inning as a high leverage guy; you’d think they’d put the best reliever in those situations, but hey, to each his own.

9:35: Hutton just threw out a joke about one of the guys in the broadcast department about going to Quiznos on the Labor Day off. Waltz was a little too amused.

9:45: Adam Dunn should have been dealt to a contending team. There’s no need for Dunn to be there to take up space on this bad team.

9:50: That should have ended the inning. That’s Maybin’s ball to get, his fault.

9:51: The Gold Glove voters would really think about whether they’d vote for Cody Ross for Gold Glove at all. He’s average in center, but let’s not be ridiculous, Tommy.

9:54: Kiko Calero looked good against the first two, got a bit unlucky in the last three. He could’ve gotten that high pitch that walked Elijah Duke, they’d been calling that a strike a good deal of the night.

9:58: Huge K by Calero. We escape again.

10:23: They were line drives but Matt Lindstrom still can’t catch a break BABIP wise.

10:25: There’s my point again. Lindstrom got the grounder, it wasn’t terribly hard hit, but they’re really hitting it where he ain’t all the time. He really needs to strike more guys out.

10:28: Renyel Pinto shouldn’t be pitching in “rather important spots.” Ugh. Cross your fingers, folks.

10:28: Wow, Dunn swung at three changeups breaking right into the dirt. From one of the more selective guys in the game, I was surprised.

10:41: They’re sending Leo Nunez for what seems like his 30th three-run save. Someone stop Fredi, please.

10:43: Did Hutton just say that Pinto had control of his changeup and got them over? Dunn swung at three changes more or less in the dirt. I think that K was on Dunn, not Pinto.

10:45: Nunez has been replacement level. He’s not been great. He’s allowed homers, some of which you probably expect to go down, but he’s been that guy for some time, outside of last year. And let’s not forget, a .254 BABIP and a slightly inflated 81.4% strand rate. He’s gotten a bit lucky.

10:51: After really sweating it out this ninth inning, Nunez finally completes the “save” and we mercifully end this dreadfully long game. Marlins win! Huzzah! Hope you guys enjoyed this, I’ll try to do it from time to time and give a little bit more warning.