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BY MANNY NAVARRO
MNAVARRO@MIAMIHERALD.COM
The Marlins and Nationals waited two hours and 49 minutes after their scheduled start to play baseball Monday night.
Once thunderstorms left Sun Life Stadium and the teams took the field, there was still enough standing water left behind in the outfield grass for players to dabble in games of dodge the puddle and slip and slide. Not that any of those games were fun.
By the time the Nationals were done beating the Marlins 9-3 at four minutes past 1 a.m., most of the 500 or so fans who stuck around for the 9:59 p.m. start were long gone.
The players? They were just happy nobody was seriously injured. "It was rough," said Marlins center fielder Cameron Maybin, who had to run in to get several balls that stopped rolling once they landed in puddles.
"That was by far the most standing water I've ever played in. We were all just trying to be careful out there and not run into any injuries."
Outside of a few splashes, the large bulk of the paid crowd of 18,326 that didn't stick around or fell asleep watching at home didn't miss much in the way of drama.
The Marlins (65-65) played sloppy, making two errors and throwing four wild pitches while Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn each hit mammoth three-run home runs to pace the last-place Nationals (56-75), who improved to 5-8 in the season series with their NL East division rivals.
Nationals starter Jason Marquis, who came in 0-7 with a 8.79 ERA, picked up his first win since Sept. 8, 2009. Marquis pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits, three walks and three earned runs - one on a solo home run by Hanley Ramirez in the first and two more on Brett Hayes' two-run home run in the sixth that cut the Nationals' lead to 4-3.
Zimmerman's three-run shot off Marlins starter Alex Sanabia broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning.
The towering blast, likely the longest this season at the stadium, broke a few lights on the out-of-town scoreboard on the edge of the upper deck in left-center field and left part of the letter "m" on the Sun Life Stadium advertisement partially unlit.
Dunn's blast in the seventh to center field off Brian Sanches wasn't nearly as long. But the 400-foot-plus shot turned a two-run game into an 8-3 lead on a night when the Marlins' bullpen was once again less than stellar.
"They hit with runners in scoring position and we were unable to early in the game," said Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez, whose team stranded eight runners on base. "It was an overall bad game."
Sanabia wasn't as sharp as he's been in his last two starts. But he lasted 5 2/3 innings, scattered seven hits, walked one and left trailing 4-1 in the sixth.
But the Nationals quickly added to their 4-3 lead in the seventh. After Justin Maxwell reached on Chad Tracy's throwing error to start the inning, Sanches uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Maxwell to reach third before he scored on another wild pitch moments later.
Sanches then walked Roger Bernadina and Zimmerman before Dunn's blast blew the game open.
If there was a positive for the Marlins, it was that rookie right fielder Mike Stanton ended his hitting slump two at-bats shy of matching the club record for futility. Stanton's eighth-inning single off Tyler Clippard ended an 0-for-31 slump dating back to Aug. 19.
Mike Jacobs owns the record at 0-for-33 set Aug. 10, 2007.
"It was a long night," Rodriguez said. "It's been a very rough last two days. We have to regroup. We have Anibal Sanchez on the mound. Hopefully, we can bounce back [Tuesday]."
MNAVARRO@MIAMIHERALD.COM
The Marlins and Nationals waited two hours and 49 minutes after their scheduled start to play baseball Monday night.
Once thunderstorms left Sun Life Stadium and the teams took the field, there was still enough standing water left behind in the outfield grass for players to dabble in games of dodge the puddle and slip and slide. Not that any of those games were fun.
By the time the Nationals were done beating the Marlins 9-3 at four minutes past 1 a.m., most of the 500 or so fans who stuck around for the 9:59 p.m. start were long gone.
The players? They were just happy nobody was seriously injured. "It was rough," said Marlins center fielder Cameron Maybin, who had to run in to get several balls that stopped rolling once they landed in puddles.
"That was by far the most standing water I've ever played in. We were all just trying to be careful out there and not run into any injuries."
Outside of a few splashes, the large bulk of the paid crowd of 18,326 that didn't stick around or fell asleep watching at home didn't miss much in the way of drama.
The Marlins (65-65) played sloppy, making two errors and throwing four wild pitches while Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn each hit mammoth three-run home runs to pace the last-place Nationals (56-75), who improved to 5-8 in the season series with their NL East division rivals.
Nationals starter Jason Marquis, who came in 0-7 with a 8.79 ERA, picked up his first win since Sept. 8, 2009. Marquis pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits, three walks and three earned runs - one on a solo home run by Hanley Ramirez in the first and two more on Brett Hayes' two-run home run in the sixth that cut the Nationals' lead to 4-3.
Zimmerman's three-run shot off Marlins starter Alex Sanabia broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning.
The towering blast, likely the longest this season at the stadium, broke a few lights on the out-of-town scoreboard on the edge of the upper deck in left-center field and left part of the letter "m" on the Sun Life Stadium advertisement partially unlit.
Dunn's blast in the seventh to center field off Brian Sanches wasn't nearly as long. But the 400-foot-plus shot turned a two-run game into an 8-3 lead on a night when the Marlins' bullpen was once again less than stellar.
"They hit with runners in scoring position and we were unable to early in the game," said Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez, whose team stranded eight runners on base. "It was an overall bad game."
Sanabia wasn't as sharp as he's been in his last two starts. But he lasted 5 2/3 innings, scattered seven hits, walked one and left trailing 4-1 in the sixth.
But the Nationals quickly added to their 4-3 lead in the seventh. After Justin Maxwell reached on Chad Tracy's throwing error to start the inning, Sanches uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Maxwell to reach third before he scored on another wild pitch moments later.
Sanches then walked Roger Bernadina and Zimmerman before Dunn's blast blew the game open.
If there was a positive for the Marlins, it was that rookie right fielder Mike Stanton ended his hitting slump two at-bats shy of matching the club record for futility. Stanton's eighth-inning single off Tyler Clippard ended an 0-for-31 slump dating back to Aug. 19.
Mike Jacobs owns the record at 0-for-33 set Aug. 10, 2007.
"It was a long night," Rodriguez said. "It's been a very rough last two days. We have to regroup. We have Anibal Sanchez on the mound. Hopefully, we can bounce back [Tuesday]."
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/3...#ixzz0yCixyLRy
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