OZUNA’S HR IN 8TH CAPS MARLINS’ COMEBACK
Fish Overcome 6-Run Deficit
MIAMI, Aug. 14 (AP) – Marcel Ozuna’s two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning capped a late-inning Marlins comeback and Miami went on to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 at Marlins Park. Miami trailed 6-0 in the bottom of the sixth before rallying for five runs to make it close. Ozuna’s heroics in the eighth gave the Marlins their first lead of the contest and Steve Cischek closed the game out in the ninth for his 22nd save of the year.
The comeback marked the biggest and latest margin overcome by any team in a game this year. Just three days ago, the Philadelphia Phillies overcame a six-run deficit in the fifth inning to defeat the New York Mets 9-8 at Citizens Bank Park.
Brad Penny made his second start of the season and it didn’t go well. The Diamondbacks took the lead in the top of the first when Chad Pennington singled with one out, stole second and scored one out later on Mark Trumbo’s base hit. Arizona made it 2-0 in the second when Didi Gregorius led off with a double and scored on Ender Inciarte’s two-out base hit.
In the fourth, the Diamondbacks took firm control of the game and knocked Penny out of the box in the process. Jake Lamb led off with a single and was doubled to third by Gregorius. Xavier Paul grounded out to second, scoring Lamb and moving Gregorius to third. Arizona starter Chase Anderson then helped his own cause with a base hit, plating Gregorius to make it 4-0. Inciarte’s single to right advanced Anderson to third and Pennington’s infield grounder scored Anderson. Marlins manager Mike Redmond pulled Penny in favor of Anthony DeScalfani who struck out David Peralta to end the inning, but the damage had been done. The Diamondbacks held a 6-0 lead in the middle of the fourth.
Anderson, meanwhile, was getting the job done against Miami. He allowed five Marlins hits in the first five innings, but took a shutout into the sixth inning, largely as a result of having fanned 10 in the first five frames. But all of those strikeouts led to a high pitch count and when Anderson allowed a lead-off single to Giancarlo Stanton in the bottom of the sixth and followed that up with a walk to Casey McGehee, he appeared gassed. Arizona manager Kirk Gibson was in a bit of a quandary. Anderson had thrown nearly 100 pitches at this point but the Diamondbacks bullpen was a bit thin from copious recent work. The club had just recalled Bradin Hagens from the minor leagues and Gibson inserted him in the game, hoping he'd be able to work through the inning with minimal damage.
Things started out well enough as Hagens struck out Garrett Jones for the first out, but then came a pivotal moment in the game. Jarrod Saltalamacchia bounced what looked for all the world like an inning ending double play grounder to Gregorius at shortstop. The ball was fielded cleanly but the throw to Pennington at second was wild and ended up in right field. Stanton scored and McGehee ended up on third. Instead of the inning being over with the shutout intact, a run was in and runners were on the corners with just one out. The Marlins seemed to realize that the door had been left open and they raced through it. Ozuna lined a sharp single to center, scoring McGehee to make it 6-2, and chasing Saltalamacchia to third. Adeiny Hechavarria then grounded a base hit through the box, loading the bases. Reed Johnson pinch hit for the pitcher and crushed a double off the center field wall, clearing the bases and bring the Marlins to within a run. Evan Marshall replaced Hagens and skillfully navigated out of trouble but what had looked like a very comfortable Arizona lead was now 6-5 heading into the seventh inning.
Neither team scored in the seventh and, after Mike Dunn and Chris Hatcher worked around an error to keep the Diamondbacks scoreless in the top of the eighth, Miami prepared to face Randall Delgado in the bottom half of the inning. Saltalamacchia started things off by drawing a lead-off free pass. That brought Ozuna to the plate and he drove a 1-1 offering into the seats in right-center for his 16th home run of the season and a 7-6 Marlins lead. Miami threatened to add on as pinch hitter Ed Lucas drew a one-out walk and, after Christian Yelich lined out, Donovan Solano doubled, putting runners on second and third, but Stanton flied out to the warning track in left to keep the Diamondbacks’ deficit to a single run.
Cishek came on in the top of the ninth and allowed a base hit to Inciarte to open the inning, but struck out Pennington and induced a fielder’s choice grounder off the bat of David Peralta for the second out. Trumbo rolled out to second to end the ballgame.
8/14/2014, Ari14-Mia14, Marlins Park
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2014 Diamondbacks 1 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 6 12 1 7 1
2014 Marlins 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 2 x 7 11 0 8 0
Diamondbacks AB R H BI AVG Marlins AB R H BI AVG
Inciarte cf 4 0 3 1 .290 Yelich lf 5 0 1 1 .301
Pennington 2b 5 1 1 1 .266 Solano 2b 5 0 1 0 .245
Peralta,D rf 5 0 0 0 .262 Stanton rf 4 1 2 0 .281
Trumbo 1b 5 0 2 1 .257 McGehee 3b 3 1 1 0 .320
Montero,M c 3 0 0 0 .258 Jones,G 1b 3 0 1 0 .262
Lamb 3b 3 2 2 1 .167 Baker,Je ph 1 0 0 0 .257
Pacheco ph 1 0 1 0 .198 Saltalamacchia c 3 2 0 0 .193
Gregorius ss 4 2 2 0 .284 Ozuna cf 4 2 3 3 .265
Paul lf 3 0 0 1 .100 Hechavarria ss 4 1 1 0 .241
Marte,Al ph 1 0 0 0 .214 Penny p 1 0 0 0 .333
Anderson,C p 3 1 1 1 .143 DeSclafani p 0 0 0 0 .100
Hagens p 0 0 0 0 .000 Valdespin ph 1 0 0 0 .149
Marshall,E p 0 0 0 0 .000 Dyson,S p 0 0 0 0 .000
Perez,O p 0 0 0 0 .000 Johnson,R ph 1 0 1 2 .304
Hill,A ph 1 0 0 0 .231 Dunn,M p 0 0 0 0 .000
Delgado p 0 0 0 0 .000 Hatcher p 0 0 0 0 .000
38 6 12 6 Lucas ph 0 0 0 0 .276
Cishek p 0 0 0 0 .000
35 7 11 6
Diamondbacks INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Anderson,C 5.0 6 2 2 1 10 96 60 4.44
Hagens H 1 0.1 3 3 1 0 1 18 12 27.00
Marshall,E H 16 1.0 0 0 0 1 2 17 11 3.05
Perez,O H 12 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3.89
Delgado BS 1, L 5-1 1.0 2 2 2 2 1 31 15 4.67
8.0 11 7 5 4 14 163 99
Marlins INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Penny 3.2 8 5 5 1 1 78 51 9.72
DeSclafani 1.1 2 1 1 0 2 15 11 4.91
Dyson,S 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 15 9 3.64
Dunn,M 1.1 1 0 0 0 3 24 18 3.59
Hatcher W 3-5 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 9 9 3.07
Cishek S 22 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 16 9 2.53
9.0 12 6 6 2 8 157 107
Ari: Pacheco batted for Lamb in the 8th
Marte,Al batted for Paul in the 8th
Hill,A batted for Perez,O in the 8th
Pacheco moved to 3b in the 8th
Marte,Al moved to lf in the 8th
Mia: Valdespin batted for DeSclafani in the 5th
Johnson,R batted for Dyson,S in the 6th
Baker,Je batted for Jones,G in the 7th
Baker,Je moved to 1b in the 8th
Lucas batted for Hatcher in the 8th
E-Gregorius. 2B-Gregorius 2(5), Solano(6), Jones,G(29), Johnson,R(18).
HR-Lamb(1), Ozuna(16). RBI-Inciarte(25), Pennington(19), Trumbo(25), Lamb(1),
Paul(1), Anderson,C(2), Yelich(32), Ozuna 3(62), Johnson,R 2(13).
SB-Pennington(2). CS-Trumbo. K-Pennington, Peralta,D 2, Trumbo, Lamb,
Gregorius 2, Hill,A, Yelich 2, Solano 3, Stanton, McGehee 2, Jones,G,
Saltalamacchia 2, Hechavarria 2, Penny. BB-Inciarte, Montero,M, Stanton,
McGehee, Saltalamacchia, Lucas.
GWRBI: Ozuna
Temperature: 85, Sky: clear, Wind: in from center at 12 MPH.
Attendance: 31,117
Game Time: 3:33