The Great, The Bad, and The Ricky Marlins Recap: Miami Marlins (11-32) vs Arizona Diamondbacks (25-18) 5/19/13

What a game! The best part was I got to see it live at Marlins Park. After driving 3 ½ hours from Orlando to catch the entire Arizona Diamondback series this was a nice way to end my trip. So, without further ado welcome to The Great, The Bad, and The Ricky. Here is the quick recap– The Great: we avoided a sweep by winning this game 2-1; The Bad: the Bottom of the 9^TH; and The Ricky: a great performance by Ricky Nolasco. Now let’s dive into the game.

The Great:

We avoided a sweep at the hands of the Diamondbacks by winning this game 2-1. The inning that that gave us the win was the bottom of the 6^th where the Marlins bats finally came alive— but not at first. We started the inning with Ricky popping out to the seconded baseman; then it was followed by an Adeiny Hechavarria single. Unfortunately, he was not moved up by Placido Polanco who flied out to left field the next at bat. Then came Derek Dietrich who singled to left field moving Adeiny to 3^rd. Up came Marcell Ozuna, who with a 2-1 count and 2 out double off the left field wall scored Hech and Dietrich and the Marlins took a 2-0 lead.  Justin Ruggiano walked and then Chris Coghlan ground out to end the inning… but not without the damaged already done.

The Bad:

Our 9^th inning was not the prettiest inning of the game. We started with Ricky giving up a double to Didi Gregorius ending his day. In came Steve Cishek who started out well by having Paul Goldschmidt ground out to second, but that ground out moved Didi moved to 3^rd. Next came Jason Kubel who sac flied to left field, scoring Didi. Eric Chavez then singled and Martin Prado walked ending Steve’s day. Mike Dunn, who has been on point this season, came in and walked Miguel Montero loading the bases. A. J. Pollock then came up and with a full count and grounded out to the shortstop ending the game and giving The Fish the win. This inning could have been a lot Uglier, but nevertheless it was Bad.

The Ricky:

May 14, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco (47) throws a pitch in the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

This is the Ricky Nolasco that all the Marlins fans wanted to see all season! Ricky went 8 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, and a whopping 11 K! He struck out the side in the 5^th and the 8^th. Also having a 1-2-3 inning in the 2^nd (with a double play), the 6^th, and the 7^th. This was his best performance of the season and hopefully he can keep it up for the rest of the season.

In the end, it was a fun game to be at live. The crowd was so alive, the players were playing their hardest, and Ricky was amazing. If we can keep this up all season I can see the fans coming back. Until next time, enjoy your week and Let’s Go Marlins!