Marlins 3, Padres 1 (11). Miami's Jacob Turner faced San Diego's Ian Kennedy.
Kennedy threw a perfect first inning, and San Diego threatened against Turner in the home half. Everth Cabrera singled and stole second with one out, Seth Smith walked, and with two away, Jedd Gyorko reached on an Adeiny Hechevarria error to load the bases. Cameron Maybin hit into an inning-ending force to keep the game scoreless. Kennedy was perfect again in the second, and with two outs in the bottom of the inning, he turned on a 2-0 pitch and hit his first career home run to put his team in the lead.
The Padre starter continued his terrific impersonation of a man attempting to win a game on his own, as he retired the Marlins in order in the third and fourth innings as well. Meanwhile, the San Diego lineup wasted a Cabrera leadoff double in the third and an inning-opening single by Maybin in the fourth. Miami finally got its first baserunner when Garret Jones doubled with two out in the fifth, but Marcell Ozuna flied out to leave him at second. Chris Denorfia singled in the bottom of the inning, and was removed from the bases on Cabrera's double play grounder.
Kennedy struck out the first two batters of the sixth, and then things went wrong very quickly. Christian Yelich doubled and Derek Dietrich singled him home to tie the game. A pair of walks loaded the bases for Jarrod Saltalamacchia; Kennedy recovered to strike him out and salvage the tie score, which is something. Turner retired the Padres in order in the sixth, and Kennedy allowed an Ozuna single in the seventh, but the runner was erased on a failed attempt to advance on a pitch that was not quite wild enough.
Carter Capps relieved in the bottom of the seventh and worked around an Alexi Amarista single. Joaquin Benoit took the mound in the top of the eighth and threw a pair of spotless half innings, sandwiched around a Mike Dunn appearance that featured a two-out Smith double and no additional offense. The bottom of the ninth saw Maybin walk and steal second against AJ Ramos, but he too was left in scoring position, forcing a tenth inning onto an unsuspecting crowd.
Huston Street and Ramos combined to retire all six hitters in the tenth. The top of the eleventh, pitched by Dale Thayer, went somewhat differently; after two outs, Dietrich reached on a Gyorko error, and that brought Giancarlo Stanton to the plate. Naturally, Stanton homered to put the Marlins in front, and Steve Cishek worked a 1-2-3 home half of the inning to nail down the save.
Both of these teams spent the first ten innings trying to scratch and claw their way onto the scoreboard, with highly limited success. The difference in the game proved to be the fact that only one of the teams has a legitimate game-breaking slugger in the lineup, and they were able to stay even long enough to let him finally break it. Meanwhile, the other team has the inarguable worst lineup in baseball, sporting a team batting line of .214/.264/.325, which would merit a benching if an individual player was hitting like that into May.
The Padres got a home run from their starting pitcher, and scored just that one run in the game. It's hard to argue that any of them (except for Ian Kennedy) did not deserve this loss.
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