Marlins Start The Season With 6-2 Victory Over Mets Behind JJ and Buck

[Mcost002]

JJ had to be happy to see the new bullpen performing, his win total is on the way up.

[Namaste]

I've probably sat in the Fish Tank about 25 times in my life. Tonight was the most fun we ever had in the Tank. The air horn we brought probably helped a lot.

Buck had quite a Bonifacio-esque Opening Day.

[Erick]

I liked how un-Marlin-like we were in terms of discipline. Not a lot of first pitch swinging, tons of grind it out AB's.

The team didn't strikeout either, if you don't count Josh Johnson's 2 K's.

[Party]

That best part was Hanley coming out for Buck's curtain call. It took awhile for that to process in our heads.

But the Buck at-bat was so awesome. Guy kept fouling off pitch after pitch. The crowd started getting into it. First it was a spattering of applause and then more applause. The pitch before the home run, some people near the Marlins bullpen got a chant going. The chant swept through the entire stadium until everyone was doing it. Next pitch--BOOM!

[Mainge]

The team didn't strikeout either, if you don't count Josh Johnson's 2 K's.

Only JJ struck out. That's cool.

Oh hey cool bro.

[Party]

I'll address it because it was briefly discussed in the game thread. The crowd was 85-15 in favor of the Marlins. You could still see several places where fights broke out every other inning.

[Chewford]

I imagine the crowd tomorrow will be 60-20-20 in favor of Pitbull.

[Mainge]

It's going to be titties when we can get crowds like that without occasion.

[Party]

Especially in an enclosed environment. It's going to be as loud as the Miami Arena was.
--------------------
Closing the book on JRS Opening Day crowds:

2005- 57,405 vs. ATL
2004- 55,315 vs. MON
1994- 43,290 vs. HOU
1993- 42,334 vs. LAD
1995- 42,125 vs. LAD
1996- 41,815 vs. PIT
2011- 41,237 vs. NYM
1997- 41,412 vs. CHC
1998- 41,126 vs. CHC
2010- 40,666 vs. LAD
2007- 40,397 vs. PHI
1999- 38,983 vs. NYM
2008- 38,308 vs. NYM
2003- 37,137 vs. PHI
2001- 36,146 vs. PHI
2000- 35,101 vs. SF
2009- 34,323 vs. WAS
2006- 31,308 vs. SD
2002- 23,877 vs. MON

[Namaste]

Madman was very incorrect when he said the crowd was mostly Mets fans

At most, the crowd was 20% Mets fans

[kylekash]

The best part is they all kept their yaps shut for the majority of the game b/c JJ gave them nothing to get excited about - then of course the fish took the 4 run lead and they really lost hope.

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

I read in the game thread that people were having problems with the quality of the game via the PS3. I had to watch the game from the MLB At Bat app on my iPhone and the quality was great. In fact, it was better than last year (but that could be because I recently upgraded and got the iPhone 4). Just an FYI for anyone that may want to try that if you have the app and an mlb.tv account.

[Party]

Local TV coverage:

NBC 6

CBS 4

Local 10

[MiamiHomer]

Madman was very incorrect when he said the crowd was mostly Mets fans

At most, the crowd was 20% Mets fans

Pretty sure that was flamarlins21.
--------------------

MIAMI -- Maybe it wasn't a game for the ages, but Josh Johnson certainly made a strong first impression on Friday night.

So did John Buck.

Johnson threw six innings of no-hit ball, and Buck belted a grand slam in the Marlins' 6-2 win over the Mets in front of 41,237 in the final season opener at Sun Life Stadium.

Logan Morrison provided some insurance with a homer in the eighth off Taylor Buchholz.

The big crowd was the largest in Miami since 46,427 showed up on June 20, 2009 to watch the Marlins face the Yankees.

"It was awesome," Johnson said of the atmosphere. "That might have been one of the first times that there weren't a lot of, 'Let's go Mets!' Seriously, it was awesome. I'd like to see that a lot more."

For Johnson, Friday was a chance to atone for his 2010 opening performance, when he was on the losing end to the Mets and Johan Santana at Citi Field.

"It's what I wanted to set out to do, to get off on a good foot," Johnson said. "I thought about last year a lot, the first game of last year. It didn't sit well with me."

With Johnson pitching like a two-time All-Star, the Marlins created a long night for the Mets and Mike Pelfrey.

"You could definitely tell a difference with Josh Johnson now on Opening Day than from Spring Training," said Buck, who was an All-Star catcher with the Blue Jays last year. "He's something special. He's got that extra gear. You can definitely tell."

Johnson (1-0) carried a no-hitter into the seventh. His bid to make history was broken up on Willie Harris' leadoff double.

All night, Johnson was getting positive results with his two-seam fastball (sinker) and changeup. But Harris' hit came on a two-seamer that didn't sink enough.

"It was a two-seamer away," Buck said. "It just didn't quite two-seam enough."

Johnson, who has never thrown a no-hitter at the high school level or in pro ball, settled for a night of allowing two runs on three hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Johnson, whose 2.30 ERA last year paced the National League, wasn't aware of his no-hitter until the fifth.

"I had no idea," said the 6-foot-7 right-hander. "Then I looked up there [at the scoreboard] in the fifth. I was looking at my pitches and I saw no hits. I was thinking back to whether that was right or not."

On a night so much went right for Florida, the lone hiccup was slugger Mike Stanton being replaced in the sixth inning with a tight left hamstring. It's not believed serious, but the 21-year-old will be evaluated on Saturday.

Johnson's shutout bid ended in the seventh when Carlos Beltran delivered an RBI double.

"I think he's one of the best pitchers in the game," Beltran said. "Last year, we talked about it here in the clubhouse, and we talk about the pitchers that we face that are good. And he's always there. He's one of the best pitchers in the game. So every time you face a guy like that, you have to battle. It's a battle. That's how it was today."

Johnson said the lone no-hitter he has thrown came when he was playing summer travel baseball at the age of 16. He was playing for a Chicago-based team and he tossed a seven-inning no-hitter in a tournament in Cleveland.

By the time Johnson allowed a run, the Marlins already had gained control, thanks to Buck's fourth-inning grand slam.

"Not only was that a grand slam, that was a clutch hit with two strikes," manager Edwin Rodriguez said. "We're counting on him to be a leader on this team, to provide some leadership. That's a very good way to start."

Buck capped an eight-pitch showdown with Pelfrey by connecting to right-center. The homer came after he battled back from an 0-2 count and he had fouled off three straight pitches.

"I'm kind of a flyball hitter," Buck said. "I was thinking, make contact and get a run in. The wind might have helped me."

Buck became the fourth Marlin to connect on a slam on Opening Day. Three of them have been at home, including Hanley Ramirez (2009) and Juan Encarnacion (2005). Preston Wilson had a slam in the opener at Montreal in 2002.

After the game, Buck signed the baseball for the fan who caught it. The bat he used actually broke two at-bats later, but it did its job on a night the Marlins improved to 10-9 all-time on Opening Day.

With a new-look lineup that doesn't include Dan Uggla, Cody Ross and Jorge Cantu from last year, power isn't expected to be a big part of Florida's game. In the opener, that wasn't the case, as Buck and Morrison each went deep.

"Two home runs," Rodriguez said. "Not bad for a team with no power."

Buck slams Mets as JJ flirts with no-hitter

[Party]

BY GREG COTE
gcote@MiamiHerald.com

Marlins ace Josh Johnson had been imagining what Friday’s Opening Night crowd and ambience might be like.

“Hopefully it’ll be pretty loud,” said the pitcher, “and not much, ‘Let’s go Mets!’ ”

Done.

Johnson took care of that one himself. He handled the silencing of New York — both the Mets’ bats and their usually raucous fans — in a big season-starting show that verified to any who still might doubt it that Florida’s young right-handed All-Star is inching beyond really good to the rarest territory where the elite are regarded.

As for the loud part of what Johnson had envisioned, his catcher, John Buck, took care of that end. In baseball they call the pitcher and catcher the battery, and the Marlins got all the juice and electricity they needed from this one on this night.

While Johnson was mastering the Mets — carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning before proving human — Buck’s fourth-inning grand slam to right-center field busted open a scoreless game as subtly as a piñata explodes in a rain of candy, and that was all Johnson needed.

Buck, a journeyman signed as a free agent in November, fought through an eight-pitch at-bat before igniting the opening crowd of 41,237 — the huge gate itself a revelation, a reminder how it can be here.

The eventual 6-2 Marlins’ victory proved a buoyant start to the club’s 19th season and last in the old stadium, but it also was a reminder there could be plenty worth cheering this year while waiting for the new ballpark rising a few miles south.

Everything about this season seems to be about next year. It’s as if the season just begun is merely a bridge, something perfunctory that must be gotten through before the real fun starts.

I think the real fun just started.

I think what we saw Friday — in Johnson’s dominance, in Buck’s slam, in Mike Stanton’s roped double down the left field line — were indications that a young, fun-to-watch, competitive team won’t wait for the christening of the new park.

This long season won’t be so much a fond farewell to the old stadium as a good-riddance, but that hardly means the spring, summer and fall need be a dirge. Let’s not wish to disappear a year of promise.

“Our expectations are nothing short of a World Series title,” young left fielder Logan Morrison said. “I know no one’s talking about that.

“We don’t make [big] money. We’re not in the headlines.”

That might be standard-issue confidence, or reckless youth.

Morrison is right about no one talking playoffs for this team. ESPN.com asked a 45-person panel of experts and none — not one — foresaw this a playoff year for Florida. He’s right about the money, too. The team’s $56 million payroll is increased but still pocket change next to the big spenders.

The thing is, Opening Day (or night), when everybody starts 0-0, is the right time to believe, to dream. It’s allowed. It’s good for you. Optimism is medicinal like that.

Besides, there is an emotional element to this last season in the old stadium.

“It’s the only home I’ve ever known,” as Johnson said of this place. “I don’t know what it’s like to play indoors all the time or walk into a new clubhouse.”

Opening Day can be a spigot on emotions. No sport begins as specially.

The left fielder Morrison — all those tattoos covering both arms suggesting such toughness — fought tears before the game, thinking about his father who’d passed away. He recalled attending his first Opening Day with his dad at age 12. It was in Kansas City, and cold.

Morrison’s walkup song Friday night was a country tune about a boy who wants to grow up to be just like dad.

He hit a solo home run in the eighth inning and — lost in the applause, lost in the night — he looked up and saluted, a gesture for his father, as he touched home plate.

“Goosebumps,” he said later.

Teams breathe. Athletes bleed.

First baseman Gaby Sanchez, as local as arroz con pollo, born and raised Miami, begins his second full season as a Marlin but still has to pinch himself sometimes.

“You think about watching this growing up, wanting to be on that same field.”

Manager Edwin Rodriguez, the baseball lifer who took over last June, experienced his first big-league Opening Day.

“It means a lot for me, for the family, for Puerto Rico,” he said.

The NFL is in a labor-dispute lockout. The NBA is threatening the same.

Now here comes baseball, for now the imprimatur of peace and harmony, reclaiming itself, however briefly, as America’s Pastime.

This sport’s slow parade of 162 games can grow tedious, but the first one also arrives special, like a gift, like a birthday.

So the red, white and blue bunting was out riffling in the breeze Friday night. Mike Lowell was throwing out the first pitch. Clarence Clemons’ sweet saxophone graced the national anthem, with a flyover of Air Force F-16s the booming crescendo.

The umpire yelled “Play ball!,” like something out of central casting, and then Josh Johnson steamed through the Mets as if the night were scripted by the fans.

I mean the ones exalting for the Marlins, not the ones who came to shout “Let’s go Mets!” but never got the chance.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/0...#ixzz1INSBdjYP