Florida Marlins Baseball

"Momentum is only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher."

A day after suffering the record for worst defeat in Marlin home history, Marlins tied a batting record without their best slugger. Marlin hitters sent four souvenir balls in the stands on Sunday afternoon in a 9-3 win over the Houston Astros. The four homeruns tied a Marlins record for homeruns in a game, which has been accomplished 28 times.

Manager Joe Girardi turned to the aggressive southpaw Scott Olsen to quiet an Astros offense that recorded 12 runs the night before. After mouthing off to All-Star third baseman Miguel Cabrera in his last start, it appears Girardi didn't want to risk it again so he sat the teams triple crown leader.

It appeared the Marlins were headed towards another blowout after a Lance Berkman double in the fifth scored two runs and have the reigning NL champs a 3-0 lead over the Fish. Preston Wilson gave the Astros an early 1-0 lead thanks to his double in the first. Olsen pitched 5.1 innings giving up three runs off six hits.

The Marlins were down 3-0 at one point, but Astros starter Taylor Buchholz pitched into a jam in the fifth. After a solo homerun to Wes Helm, the 6'4 Pennsylvanian walked two batters before giving up a three run homer to Hanley Ramirez, which gave the Marlins a lead they would never lose.

The hit parade was followed in the sixth by Jeremy Hermida's third homerun of the season. Slugger Mike Jacobs' homer run (13th) in the seventh tied himself with Dan Uggla for second on the Marlins. After an Uggla single and Hermida strike out, Joe Borchard was hit by a pitch. With two on and two out, Helms doubled both runs in and racked up three RBI on the day. The scoring ended in the home portion of the eighth when Jacobs doubled in Alfredo Amezaga.

Wacky Stat of the Night
Dan Uggla, Sunday's cleanup hitter, marked only the second time that a Marlin second baseman hit in the fourth slot. (Kurt Abbot hit cleanup in September 1997)

Posted by Brian Saal on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 2:06 PM | Permalink