Results tagged ‘ Miami Marlins ’
Four different Marlins pitchers walked four straight batters to force in a run last night
Last night the Marlins did something no other team in baseball history has ever done when four different pitchers combined to walk four consecutive batters, loading the bases and then forcing in what was the tying run:
- It all began when starter Josh Johnson walked the final batter he faced, Lucas Duda, with two outs in the seventh inning.
- Ozzie Guillen removed Johnson from the game and brought in Randy Choate, who then walked pinch-hitter Justin Turner.
- That was it for Choate and he was replaced by Steve Cishek, who walked Scott Hairston.
- And finally Guillen brought in Mike Dunn, who walked Josh Thole.
Four pitchers, four plate appearances, four walks. Amazing. And here’s the kicker: Marlins pitchers issued zero walks in the game’s other 29 plate appearances … and Miami lost 2-1.
Here’s hoping Showtime devotes an entire episode of The Franchise to that half-inning or at the very least features a montage of Ozzie Guillen walking back and forth from the dugout to the mound while the Benny Hill music plays.
Source: Hardball Talk
Heath Bell blows second save in as many tries with Miami
by Drew Silva
When the Marlins gave veteran closer Heath Bell a three-year, $27 million free agent contract this winter, most people called it an overpay. Two weeks into the 2012 regular season, it’s looking like an abomination.
Bell surrendered four runs — two earned — in the top of the ninth inning of Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to the light-hitting Astros, who were held (quite easily) to one run through the game’s first eight frames.
Last Sunday, Bell yielded four hits and two earned runs in a blown save opportunity against the Reds.
The 34-year-old right-hander is now 0-for-2 in save chances with Miami and is sporting a brutal 12.00 ERA and 3.67 WHIP in three total innings of work (four relief appearances). His fastball is averaging 92.7 mph, down from the 94.0 mph mean that he registered in his final season with the Padres.
“I feel like crap,” Bell told beat writer Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel late Saturday night. “It’s really hard to look at my teammates and them have confidence in me because I haven’t had it. I have confidence in my ability, but I haven’t shown them I can do it.”
It’s probably safe to assume that the Fish are suddenly missing Juan Carlos Oviedo.
Yup, Ozzie Is Back-Pedaling Off His “I Love Castro” Comment Real Fast
by Drew Silva
Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen is quoted in a recent issue of Time magazine as saying that he has “love” for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and respects that he’s been able to maintain power for so long.
Those thoughts obviously aren’t sitting well in Miami — a city with many Cuban descendants — and so a cleanup campaign has been put in motion.
Guillen held a closed-door meeting with beat writers on Saturday night, according to the Associated Press, and offered this:
“I will apologize if I hurt somebody’s feelings, or I hurt somebody’s thought. I want them to know I’m against everything 100 percent – I repeat it again – the way this man (been) treating people for the last 60 years.”
The Marlins, meanwhile, have issued a statement:
“There is nothing to respect about Fidel Castro. He is a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years. We live in a community filled with victims of this dictatorship, and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today.”
However Ozzie’s original comments to Time magazine came about, he clearly doesn’t stand behind them. And this certainly isn’t the first time Guillen has had a scatter-brained opinion about something.
But you have to wonder how this all is affecting the way Guillen is being viewed in south Florida. The team that employs him, after all, just opened a new ballpark in a neighborhood called “Little Havana.”
Source: Hardball Talk
