MarlinsNation

In many ways the game started appropriately – Anibal Sanchez looked very hittable and gave up 2 runs in the first inning. It looked like he was going to dominate, then all of a sudden he fell apart. Next thing you know, he gets a strikeout to escape the first without any further damage.

At that point, it was looking like ugly loss #7 in a row was rearing its ugly head. No one would have predicted what happened next – that Sanchez would retire the next 16 DBacks in a row, striking out 14 of them. Sanchez would become only the third Marlin to ever strike out 14+ batters in a game (Ricky Nolasco with 16 back in 2009 against the Braves, and AJ Burnett would K 14 twice).

All of a sudden, in a blink of an eye, Sanchez became unhittable again.

It was the same with the Marlins’ bats. They couldn’t get anything to get past the infield. Everything was hit right at someone and when they did get a hit, it came with usually 2 outs and no real threat. Ian Kennedy did a great job spreading out the hits and lightening any potential damage. Then Jose Reyes drove in a run followed by a solo shot into the Longball Lagoon from Logan Morrison. All of a sudden, the game was tied 2-2.

It took an open base at 1st, and an intentional walk, but eventually it fell to Hanley Ramirez to try and knock home the game winning run. And in the blink of an eye, Hanley did just that – he drove Mike Stanton home to steal the Marlins’ first win since the Cub series, snapping a 6 game losing streak.

Today the Marlins will go for the series win at 1:00pm against the Diamondbacks.