Marlins Eliminate Phillies from Playoffs

Sept. 28, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Mark Buehrle (56) throws during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The Marlins beat the Phillies last night, 2-0 in a game that, despite the wind-down irrelevance for the Marlins, still had a couple of high points for Marlins fans. The Marlins win mathematically eliminated the Phillies from the playoffs, despite a late-season surge that started when their top players started coming off of the DL.

Mark Buehrle pitched a gem of a game, striking out eight in as many innings, and yielding only one earned run on six hits and no walks.  When Jimmy Rollins popped out to Donovan Solano as the second out of the sixth inning, Mark Buehrle became the first pitcher to pitch 200 innings in 12 consecutive seasons since Greg Maddux went 14 seasons straight in 1988-2001.

Donovan Solano exhibited the kind of heads-up play that goes a long ways to inking him as the starting second baseman next year when he caught Ty Wigginton taking too wide a turn at third on a routine ground ball.

Perhaps the happiest news was the un- to semi-expected return of Giancarlo Stanton to the lineup. After missing a couple of weeks due to a torn intercostal muscle, Stanton opened up with a line drive double in his first at-bat off of the DL. Two innings later, he followed the double with his 35^th home run of the year. Time off didn’t appear to have thrown off his timing.