Marcell Ozuna Helps Miami Marlins Slip By Defending Champs

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

I don’t know about you, but as of late, I have been quite impressed with the Miami Marlins. Although they haven’t exactly been on a real hot streak by big league standards, they have been on a hot streak by the Marlins standards. Coming into last night’s game versus the defending champion San Francisco Giants, the Marlins had a chance to win their 3^rd game in the last 5 tries. Now, I know, that isn’t exactly the best thing possible, but for the last place Marlins, this seems like best case scenario.

With the Miami Heat playing and winning in game 7 tonight, I’ll have to admit that my mind wasn’t exactly 100% on this game. But, I am not lying when I tell you this, I had my laptop open on the game-center for this game and I did switch back and forth a little bit.

For the Marlins, pitcher Tom Koehler was sent to the mound. Winless so far as a big league pitcher, Koehler had a lot on the line coming into this game. I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed with Koehler’s performance last night after he allowed just 1 run off of a 4 hit performance. He definitely put himself in a great position to win last night’s game; however, whether or not he earned a victory was up to the offense.

The game went scoreless until the seventh inning until Giants third baseman Joaquin Arias hit a triple to right field, scoring Brandon Belt. With the pressure on late and the Marlins offense not showing up, Koehler had to feel like his fantastic effort was all for nothing.

The Giants, however, weren’t able to hold onto their slim lead. In the very next inning, the Marlins young phenom Marcell Ozuna came in to pinch hit for Tom Koehler. With two runners on base, Koehler was very close to earning his first win as a big league pitcher. Ozuna, who has been a huge part of the Marlins somewhat recent success, contributed yet again, hitting a two run, RBI single, scoring Justin Ruggiano and Derek Dietrich (Ozuna made it to third off of a throwing error).

With the Marlins coming into the ninth inning with a one run league, first year manager Mike Redmond put the ball in his closers hand. Steve Cishek’s, who started off the season terribly, has been able to manager a few good outing’s his last couple of times to the mound and last night was no different. It only took Cishek 15 pitches to get out of the ninth, while striking out two batters to secure yet another Marlins victory.

Last night’s game wasn’t a real exciting game by hits and runs standards, but if you are a fan of pitching duels like I am, last night was the perfect game to watch. With both the Miami Heat winning their second consecutive NBA title last night and the Miami Marlins winning yet another game, yesterday was a phenomenal night in sports for a South Florida fan.