Greatest Moments in Marlins History: #30 Playoff Series

Welcome back to the Greatest Moments in Marlins History. Playoffs are always a magical time in the baseball season. The Marlins, in their history, have been to 2 postseasons, and those playoffs were a lot of fun for us fans. Moment 30 takes us back to 1997 when the Marlins won their first ever playoff series against the San Francisco Giants!

In moment 128 we talked about the Marlins first playoff win ever against the Giants, to relive that moment go give the article a read here.  Game 2 of the series was a lot like game 1, except that you couldn’t call it a pitching duel. Al Leiter only lasted 4 innings giving up 4 runs and Shawn Estes only lasted 3 innings giving up 5 runs. The Giants were down 6-5 going into the 9^th until Barry Bonds reached on an error that scored Darryl Hamilton to tie up the game. Moving on to the bottom of the 9^th, Gary Sheffield started us off with a single and a stolen base to get a runner in scoring position. The next batter, Bobby Bonilla, was walked. Up came Moises Alou. On the 3^rd pitch he sent the ball down the middle into center field for the Marlins second win this series and it was again in walk-off fashion.

The 3^rd game of the series was headed to San Francisco. If the Marlins won they would move on to the NLCS. If the Marlins lost, then it’s on to game 4. The Marlins were shut down the first 5 inning of the game and the Giants scored a run thanks to a Jeff Kent solo shot in the 4^TH. In the 6^th, with the bases load, Devon White came up. You all know where this is going. On a 2-1 pitch Devon sent that ball well over the left field wall for a grand slam and a 4-1 Marlins lead. Kent tried to get the Giants back in the game that inning with another solo shot, but the Marlins were too much for the Giants. The Marlins won 6-2 and took their first playoff series ever!

This was a very impressive series for the Marlins, and it was just the start of the Marlins playoff runs. To this day the Marlins have never lost a series in the playoffs. Join me tomorrow as we talk about the place the Marlins called home from 1993-2011.