May 15, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton (27) hits a broken bat single in the fifth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-US PRESSWIRE

My ad for base hits was answered with 12 responses!

Following are the notes I took during tonight’s game.  I’ve edited some of the player names to clear up some shorthand, but it’s pretty much as I wrote it.

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Top 1^st: 6-3 to start.  Greg Dobbs at 1^st. Nice running catch from Logan Morrison for the second out.  BB to Andrew McCutchen.  Now there’s men on 1 and 2.  Josh Johnson is taking a long time before his delivery.  He’s nervous.  He’s missing the corners.  He just gave up a second base hit that put McCutchen across and left men on 2 and 3.  Bad throw from Giancarlo Stanton.  Tommy Hutton’s comment from the telecast: “When you’re struggling scoring runs, you can’t make those little mistakes.” Line drive to Hanley Ramirez gets them out of the inning.  JJ isn’t overpowering anyone.  There’s no fear in the Pirates lineup.

Bottom 1^st.  Kevin Correia takes the hill.  3-0 to Jose Reyes to start off. Draws a 1-strike walk. Omar Infante draws the 5^th ball. Infante grounded to third for the force at 2^nd. He barely beat the double play. Hanley Ramirez looked at the first two strikes, but roped a ball to the left-field corner double that drives Infante home.  Infante was running on a hit-and-run. Correia throws three balls to Morrison. After taking the obligatory meatball, he draws the walk. Correia is missing down low.  Stanton hit an unlucky line drive to the shortsop’s glove, and the inning ended with a shovel to second to nail Hanley on the tag-up.

Top 2^nd.  Alex Presley K’s on two straight fastballs up. High fly ball to Stanton for out #2. The side is retired when Correia grounded out to Hanley.  It almost got past him.

Bottom 2^nd.  Dobbs grounded out to 2^nd for the first out.  Beeeyoootiful three-bagger for Bonifacio!  1^st pitch schlubber to short wastes John Buck’s AB.  On the next pitch, JJ strands Bonifacio with a dribbler to second.

Top 3^rd. Top of the order.  Texas-leaguer puts Jose Tabata on first.  I think John Buck is setting up too far outside. Neil Walker hits an unremarkable grounder to right field.  Men on 1^st and 2^nd. Very nice low & away fastball puts McCutchen away.  JJ is taking advantage of being ahead in the count.  The Infante-Reyes combo strikes!  4-6-3, and the side is retired!

Bottom 3^rd.  Top of our order. Full count to Reyes ends with a looking K on a questionable inside pitch. Infante followed up with a perfect 3^rd base bunt from Infante. BTW, Foxtrax and the radar in the ballpark are busted.  Hanley tallies the 2^nd out by flying out to McCutchen. Logan Morrison hit into a simple force out at 2^nd to end the third.

Top 4^th.  JJ finally hit the black. Off-the-fence leaping catch from Stanton saved a double.  Not much vertical leap with young Mr. Stanton. Good hustle from JJ, tagging out the runner on a dribbler down the first base line for the second out. Good off-balance throw from Reyes to Dobbs ends the third, 3-up, 3-down.

Bottom 4^th.  Stanton walks.  Correia checks him by stepping off, as if he could steal.  Another nail goes into the Gaby Sanchez coffin when Dobbs singles to left, advancing Giancarlo, bringing up Bonifacio, who singles to right, loading the bases. Let’s see if Buck can show some patience. Nope. He fouled off a high and tight pitch.  After a ball, his bat is stuck to his shoulder. Then, a miracle.  Buck flared a single to right-center to score two.  Dare I dream?  Mound visit.  JJ  sac. bunted Buck over to 2^nd. Smell the panic?  Intentional 4^th ball to Reyes to load the bases and bring up Infante. A seeing-eye grounder between 3^rd and SS scores two! Hanley doubled off of the left field wall, scoring Reyes.  Infante got nailed at the plate for out #2.  C-ya, Correia. Bring in Chris Resop to face LoMo. Morrison goes down looking at Resop’s lively fastballs.

Top 5^th.  Can of corn to Stanton.  1 down.  JJ’s arm is waking up.  He just K’ed batter #2 with serious fastballs. Tabata lunged after two pitches for out 3.  1-2-3.

Bottom 5^th.   Stanton put pieces of his bat into the dugout, and still sent the ball into right field for a single. Dobbs flied out to left for out #1.  Bonifacio grounded to SS, forcing Stanton, but he reaches. Boney registered #19 on the first pitch, without seeing his stretch motion. Buck walked. JJ flied out to left to end the inning.

Top 6^th.  Routine 3-1 grounder for out 1.  McCutchen up for a base hit to left-center., and subsequently stole second. Fly out for out #2.  JJ at 89 pitches. Beautiful fastball across the outside black to end the half on a looking K.

Bottom 6^th. Reyes leads off., and looked at two straight strikes, and then grounded out to the first baseman. Resop starts with a nice curve ball to Infante.  He sends the next pitch up the middle for an infield single. Hanley outhustled a high-spin dribbler that started foul and spun fair to put men at first and second. Excellent effort by Hanley Ramirez. Just shows that if you watch baseball long enough, you’ll see everything. Morrison’s AB goes to 2-2 before he goes down swinging. Stanton was a bit early on his first pitch (!) and flied out to left-center.

Top 7^th.  First batter K for JJ.  6^th K. 1-3 for out 2. Michael McKenry homered to left.  6-2 Fish. Grounder to 2^nd to retire the side.

Bottom 7^th.  Tony Watson (Cornhusker!) pitching for the Bucs., Dobbs leads off with a check-swing K.  Edwin Mujica up in the ‘pen.  Bonifacio is patient and draws a walk. Let’s see if Buck can move him around.  Donnie Murphy up to PH, so JJ is done after 7. Will he get the win?  Only the bullpen will tell.  Watson has a difficult motion. Boney staying put.  Buck K’ed; 2 down.  Boney still nailed to 1^st.  Watson misses a few to Murphy for a walk.  Up comes Reyes.  He flied out to right to end the inning.

Top 8^th.  Mujica in.  Fly balls to left and right account for the first two outs. Infante faded back to right-center to nail the third out.

Bottom 8^th Jared Hughes in for the Bucs.  Infante smoked a base hit to left.  Hanley hit to the third baseman for the DP. A fly ball to left ended the inning.

Top 9^th.  Three outs to go, and Randy Choate comes in to slam the door.  Pedro Alvarez is the leadoff hitter.  Wicked breaking ball coming out of Choate tonight, and Alvarez goes down in a 4-3. Another lefty, Garrett Jones, comes up to the plate and grounds out.  Will Choate get to finish?  Unbelievable transfers and throws out of Reyes tonight on defense. Choate stays in to face Clint Barmes, and finishes the game with a swinging K.  Congratulations to Josh Johnson for his first win since April of last year!

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Tonight, the Marlins looked like a team that could be close to the top of the NL East.  The game was a confidence builder, for players, managers, and fans. The trip to Atlanta will be a crucible. If we can continue to hit, we will continue to win.  I’m looking forward to shutting down Dan Uggla‘s bat, and forcing three errors into his stats of the trip.

Without any further ado, here is a look at the chat that Tom and I had last night, regarding this upcoming series:

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