Friday, June 27, 2014

Game of the Day (6/26/14)

Phillies 5, Marlins 3 (14). Miami's Tom Koehler took on Philly's Cole Hamels. (Did you know that Cole Hamels turned 30 last December? I did not know that, and kind of wish that I still didn't.)

Neither starter allowed a baserunner until Ryan Howard led off the bottom of the second with a single. Koehler recovered to strand Howard, and Miami scored the game's first run in the next inning when Jarrod Saltalamacchia led off with a homer. Each team proceeded to waste singles by their leadoff men (Jake Marisnick and Ben Revere, respectively) later in the third.

The Marlins added another run in the fourth on a Giancarlo Stanton homer, but the Phillies countered with singles by Chase Utley, Howard, and Cody Asche to load the bases, followed by a Carlos Ruiz sac fly. Hamels was perfect in the fifth, and his teammates tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Revere singled, stole second, and scored on an Utley single. Stanton's single made him the only runner to reach in the sixth; the same was not true in the seventh, as Marcell Ozuna's longball gave Miami the lead once more and the Phils rallied against Bryan Morris on a single by Domonic Brown, productive outs by pinch hitter Tony Gwynn and Revere, and a grounder by Rollins that resulted in a run-scoring Jeff Baker error.

Jake Diekman relieved Hamels and loaded the bases with Marlins in the top of the eighth, allowing an Ed Lucas single and walking Stanton and McGehee (the second pass being issued intentionally, after a wild pitch). Ozuna struck out to end the inning, and Mike Dunn struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth. Jonathan Papelbon tossed a perfect ninth, as did Kevin Gregg. Antonio Bastardo was spotless in the tenth, while AJ Ramos had rather more difficulty; he allowed a Revere single, wild pitched him to second, walked Rollins, retired the next two hitters (one on a force that sent the lead runner to third), intentionally walked Marlon Byrd, and then got Asche to ground out, leaving the bases loaded.

Ken Giles walked Stanton in the eleventh, but removed him on a double play. Ramos hit Carlos Ruiz with a pitch and walked Revere before Rollins popped up to end the inning. Donovan Solano singled in the twelfth, but Mario Hollands stranded him at first; Chris Hatcher allowed singles to Byrd and Asche before Ruiz's groundout extended the game once more.

Justin De Fratus and Hatcher were both perfect in the thirteenth. Neither duplicated the feat in the fourteenth, as De Fratus allowed a double to Garret Jones and intentionally walked Saltalamacchia before Solano lined out to end the inning; Rollins led off the bottom of the inning with a single, and Utley then hit an 0-2 pitch over the right field wall to end the game.

The Marlins scored three runs in this game - on three solo homers. The Phillies, meanwhile, scratched and clawed for their first three, as they didn't have so much as an extra-base hit through the first 13 innings. As it turned out, the first team to co-opt the other's scoring style pulled out the victory. (Or, if you prefer, the team that had the second baseman of notable historic stature who went 3 for 7 and either scored or drove in all but one of the team's runs pulled out the victory. That helped too.)

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