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Greatest Moment In Marlins History: #128 Playoff Time!

By Andy Salgado

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The year is 1997 and the Marlins are in there 5th year, and boy what a year it was! Welcome back to the Greatest Moments in

Oct 7, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; 2010 World Series MVP for the San Francisco Giants who retired as a Cincinnati Reds player Edgar Renteria prepares to throw out the first pitch before game two of the 2012 NLDS at AT

Marlins History! At moment 128 we are going back to September 30, 1997, the first ever playoff game by the Marlins. What a game to welcome the Marlins to the Playoffs. Their opponents were the San Francisco Giants, who In 1997 went 90-72 and finished 1st in the NL West.

The game was played at Joe Robbie in front of 42,000 plus screaming Marlin fans, and boy did they get a great game! The game was a great pitching duel for the first 6 innings with Kevin Brown and Kirk Rueter shutting down the offense. That was until in the top of the 7th when Kevin gave up a solo shot to Bill Mueller giving the Giants a 1-0 lead. That lead would not stand though. The first batter in the bottom of the 7th, Charles Johnson, would send that ball over the wall, tying the game and giving Charles the honor of the first home run, run, and RBI in Marlins playoff history.

With the game tied we go to the bottom of the 9th and first up is Jeff Conine. He singles the ball into left field. Charles Johnson is up and is hit by a pitch. Person on 1st and 2nd no outs! Craig Counsell then drops a beauty of a bunt to move Jeff to 3rd and Charles to 2nd. The Giants then walk Jim Eisenreich to load the bases with 1 out! Devon White then comes up to ground the ball causing the force at home. Bases still juiced but now 2 outs. Up next is Edgar Renteria. We couldn’t have asked for a better batter. He singles the ball into right field scoring Charles to give the Marlins there first playoff win and did it 2-1 with a walk off! What a great game and what a way to start the Marlins playoff run. There are many more moments from 1997 to come, so join me next time. Let’s go Marlins.          

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