Miami Marlins Bright Future on Display in 4-2 Victory Over Colorado Rockies

Jul 22, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Miami Marlins pitcher

(31) is greeted by catcher

(left) after the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. The Marlins won 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Beyond what has been a gloomy 2013 season, the Miami Marlins have a very bright future. That bright future was on display when they took on the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night. Christian Yelich and Jake Marisnick made their major league debuts behind Marlins All-Star and rookie phenom Jose Fernandez.

Yelich got his major league career going with a one-out single in his very first at-bat in the first inning. Unfortunately for him, neither Giancarlo Stanton or Logan Morrison were able to advance or score him from first base. The Marlins and Rockies ended the first inning even at zero.

After a one-two-three top of the second for the Fish, Todd Helton greeted starter Jose Fernandez to Coors Field with an upper deck shot to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead. The home run was the 10th of his career against the Fish and the 361th of his career.

In the third inning, Adeiny Hechavarria remained hot, reeling off a single and stealing second base shortly after. This set up Yelich’s second hit of the game and his first career run batted in, as the Marlins tied the game at 1. The inning ended with a long drive by Stanton that Michael Cuddyer retired at the wall.

Not much happened in the fourth inning, but a notable event was Jose Fernandez exacting his revenge by getting Todd Helton to strikeout on a nasty breaking ball to end the inning.

The Marlins got things rolling in the fifth inning tied ball game with back-to-back single by Donovan Solano and Jeff Mathis to start the inning. Unfortunately, a decent bunt by Fernandez was laid to waste, as Rockies starter Jhoulys Chacín made a great play, retiring Solano at third on the force. Fortunately for the Fish, Hech lined a double to right, over Cuddyer, to score Mathis from first and set the Marlins with runners on second and third for their red hot rookie. A groundball that bounced off the glove of second baseman DJ LeMahieu scored Fernandez from third, and was ruled as the third hit of the night for Yelich. The inning ended on an unfortunate double play off the bat of Stanton that was hit really well, but found the glove of LeMahieu because Yelich was on the move to second.

LeMahieu made up for his fielding blunder in the fifth with a lead-off triple to begin the bottom of the sixth inning and scored on a Carlos Gonzalez ground out to cut the Marlins lead to 3-2.

The score would remain the same until the top of the 8th inning, when Giancarlo Stanton would send a moonshot right out of the park to extend the Marlins lead to 4-2. The home run was the 11th of the season for Stanton and his seventh career home run in nine career games at Coors Field. Can you imagine the damage he would do if he were to play 81 games a season here?

Steve Cishek came in for the save and was able to close the game out, despite some late inning drama. Carlos Gonzalez led the inning off with a walk and stole second base. Cishek was able to settle down and strike out Troy Tulowitzski, and then set down Cuddyer and Helton back-to-back to end the game.

Jose Fernandez pitched seven solid innings in the game, allowed just two earned runs on five hits, walked two hitters, and struck out eight. He lowered his season ERA to 2.74. He was brilliant in a start that was overshadowed by a three hit game from Yelich. Yelich became the third Marlin in Franchise history to collect three hits in his major league debut, the other two being manager Mike Redmond and right fielder Giancarlo Stanton.

Up Next: The Marlins will seek a series win against the Rockies with Nathan Eovaldi on the bump.