Go Fish: A Florida Marlins Franchise (MLB 10)

[Cane_Mutiny]

Marlins win in comeback thriller
Marlins 6, Nationals 4

WASHINGTON -- For much of the night Saturday, the Florida Marlins looked like they were in trouble.

Down 4-2 entering the 8th inning, it seemed like the Fish were destined to lose to the lowly Washington Nationals for the second game in a row and fall to 2 games under .500, but a few lucky breaks set it up for Florida catcher John Baker to come through with some late-game heroics.

Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez advanced to third on a wild pitch by Washington starter Livan Hernandez in the 8th, and then scored on the same play when catcher Ivan Rodriguez sailed a throw over Ryan Zimmerman's head trying to catch the Florida star. Ramirez cruised into home to pull the Fish within 1 run.

Things got even stranger in the 9th. First, things looked very good as pinch hitter Emilio Bonifacio got on base with a bunt single to start the inning. But a perfectly-executed pitch-out barely caught the blazing-fast Bonifacio's attempt to steal second, which looked like it would signal the end for Florida.

But Wes Helms saw to that. He doubled in the next at-bat and moved up to third by tagging up on Chris Coghlan's deep shot to the right field warning track. That's when another unfortunate wild pitch stung the Nats. Closer Matt Capps threw a pitch by Rodriguez, and the slow-footed Helms barreled into just ahead of the toss to score the tying run.

With all the momentum in their favor, the Marlins wasted no time in pushing across the go-ahead runs. Baker was the hero in the 10th, driving in Dan Uggla and Cody Ross with a single to right that ended up winning the game. Leo Nuñez recorded the save, and the Marlins secured a wild win.

"These are the games you love to win," said Baker. "When everything goes right, you catch some breaks, and you just have to capitalize. It feels great."

MLB Scoreboard | Florida Marlins (15-15) at Washington Nationals (11-19)
May 8, 2010	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Florida Marlins	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	2	6	15	1
Washington Nationals	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	10	1
WIN: Brian Sanches (1-1) LOSS: Joel Peralta (0-1) SAVE: Leo Nuñez (10)

Scoring Summary
			FLA	WAS
FLA	1st	Ramirez doubles to center. Maybin scores.	1	0
WAS	1st	Zimmerman singles to left. Taveras scores.	1	1
WAS	4th	Dunn homers to right. Dunn scores.	1	2
WAS	4th	Hernandez singles to center. Rodriguez scores.	1	3
FLA	5th	Maybin doubles to right. Miller scores.	2	3
WAS	5th	Guzman doubles to right. Zimmerman scores.	2	4
FLA	8th	Rodriguez commits throwing error. Ramirez scores.	3	4
FLA	9th	Capps throws wild pitch. Helms scores.	4	4
FLA	10th	Baker singles to right. Cantu scores. Uggla scores.	6	4

Florida Marlins
HITTERS	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	AVG
LF Chris Coghlan	5	0	0	0	0	0	.259
CF Cameron Maybin	5	1	2	1	0	0	.274
SS Hanley Ramirez	5	1	2	1	0	1	.316
3B Jorge Cantu	4	1	2	0	1	2	.336
2B Dan Uggla	5	1	2	0	0	2	.270
RF Cody Ross	5	0	2	0	0	1	.320
C John Baker	5	0	2	2	0	2	.247
1B Gaby Sanchez	3	0	0	0	0	1	.221
-- PH Emilio Bonifacio	1	0	1	0	0	0	.261
-- PH/RF Brett Carroll	1	0	0	0	0	1	.235
P Andrew Miller	2	1	1	0	0	0	.714
-- PH Mike Lamb	1	0	0	0	0	1	.250
-- PH/1B Wes Helms	1	1	1	0	0	0	.346
TOTALS	43	6	15	4	1	11
BATTING 2B: Maybin 2 (9), Ramirez (11), Uggla (8), Helms (2) RBI: Maybin (7), Ramirez (21), Baker 2 (9)
BASERUNNING SB: Ramirez (5) CS: Bonifacio (1)
FIELDING E: Ramirez (8)

Florida Marlins
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Andrew Miller	6.0	8	4	3	1	2	3.04
Tim Wood	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0.00
Dan Meyer	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	3.09
Brian Sanches (W, 1-1)	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	3.14
Leo Nuñez (S, 10)	1.0	2	0	0	0	0	2.89
Totals	10.0	10	4	3	1	5

Washington Nationals
HITTERS	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	AVG
RF Willy Taveras	5	1	2	0	0	1	.148
CF Nyjer Morgan	5	0	0	0	0	1	.265
3B Ryan Zimmerman	5	1	1	1	0	0	.270
1B Adam Dunn	5	1	2	1	0	2	.293
SS Cristian Guzman	5	0	2	1	0	0	.324
2B Adam Kennedy	4	0	0	0	0	0	.290
C Ivan Rodriguez	4	1	2	0	0	1	.330
LF Josh Willingham	3	0	0	0	1	0	.255
P Livan Hernandez	3	0	1	1	0	0	.364
-- PH Ian Desmond	1	0	0	0	0	0	.303
TOTALS	40	4	10	4	1	5
BATTING 2B: Guzman (10), Taveras (2) HR: Dunn (7) RBI: Hernandez (2), Guzman (18), Zimmerman (22), Dunn (20) GIDP: Kennedy

Washington Nationals
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Livan Hernandez	7.0	8	3	2	1	8	8.89
Miguel Batista (H, 4)	0.1	1	0	0	0	1	1.82
Tyler Walker (H, 6)	0.2	1	0	0	0	0	5.54
Matt Capps (BS, 1)	1.0	2	1	1	0	0	2.45
Joel Peralta (L, 0-1)	0.2	3	2	2	0	1	6.23
Sean Burnett	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	1.89
Totals	10.0	15	6	5	1	11

[Cane_Mutiny]

No extra inning magic for Fish this time, Marlins drop rubber match
Nationals 3, Marlins 2

WASHINGTON -- A day after winning a 10-inning thriller against the Nationals, the Florida Marlins weren't so lucky, dropping a 3-2 decision in 11 innings. Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off sac fly for Washington that scored Julian Taveras for the win in the bottom of the 11th. The Fish fell back below .500 with the loss, while the Nats stayed in last place in the NL East at 12-19.

MLB Scoreboard | Florida Marlins (15-16) at Washington Nationals (12-19)
May 9, 2010	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Florida Marlins	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	8	1
Washington Nationals	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	6	0
WIN: Tyler Walker (1-0) LOSS: Burke Badenhop (1-1)

Scoring Summary
			FLA	WAS
WAS	1st	Dunn homers to right. Guzman scores. Dunn scores.	0	2
FLA	4th	Paulino singles to left. Maybin scores.	1	2
FLA	7th	Helms homers to left. Helms scores.	2	2
WAS	11th	Zimmerman hits sacrifice fly to center. Taveras scores.	2	3

Standings Update
Phillies and surging Mets tied for 1st in NL East

NL East Standings - May 9, 2010
TEAMS	W	L	GB	RS	RA
New York Mets	18	13	.581	-	9-1
Philadelphia Phillies	18	13	.581	-	4-6
Atlanta Braves	16	15	.516	2.0	6-4
Florida Marlins	15	16	.484	3.0	4-6
Washington Nationals	12	19	.387	6.0	4-6

[Cane_Mutiny]

Marlins take first game at Wrigley
Marlins 4, Cubs 1

CHICAGO -- In the teams' first meeting of 2010, the Florida Marlins beat the host Chicago Cubs by a score of 4-1.

The Marlins got a good outing from starter Ricky Nolasco, who went 6 innings and allowed just 5 hits and a single run. For Chicago, Ted Lilly was solid, allowing 4 hits and 2 runs over 5 innings while striking out 6 and walking 3, but still picked up the loss.

Young first baseman Gaby Sanchez hit his 4th home run of the year for Florida, and Marlins outfielder Cody Ross, who has been excellent early in this year, drove in 2 runs to give the Fish enough cushion to pull out the win.

"Anytime you come to Chicago for a game at Wrigley, it gets a little harder to win," said Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez. "They may call it the Friendly Confines, but that doesn't make it any easier. We're just glad they're not flying that white flag right now."

MLB Scoreboard | Florida Marlins (16-16) at Chicago Cubs (13-19)
May 10, 2010	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Florida Marlins	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	4	8	1
Chicago Cubs	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	8	0
WIN: Ricky Nolasco (3-2) LOSS: Ted Lilly (4-3) SAVE: Leo Nuñez (11)

Scoring Summary
			FLA	CHI
FLA	3rd	Carroll singles to center. Sanchez scores.	1	0
FLA	4th	Ross doubles to center. Uggla scores.	2	0
CHI	6th	Lee homers to center. Lee scores.	2	1
FLA	7th	Sanchez doubles to center. Sanchez scores.	3	1
FLA	8th	Ross singles to left. Uggla scores.	4	1

Florida Marlins
HITTERS	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	AVG
CF Cameron Maybin	5	0	0	0	0	2	.259
RF Brett Carroll	5	0	3	1	0	1	.262
SS Hanley Ramirez	3	0	0	0	1	1	.308
3B Wes Helms	4	0	0	0	0	2	.303
2B Dan Uggla	3	2	1	0	1	1	.277
LF Cody Ross	4	0	2	2	0	0	.321
C Ronny Paulino	4	0	0	0	0	1	.150
1B Gaby Sanchez	2	2	1	1	2	1	.227
P Ricky Nolasco	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
-- PH Chris Coghlan	1	0	1	0	0	0	.264
-- PH Mike Lamb	1	0	0	0	0	0	.231
TOTALS	33	4	8	4	4	10
BATTING 2B: Coghlan (8), Uggla (9), Ross (9) HR: Sanchez (4) RBI: Ross 2 (21), Sanchez (15), Carroll (5) SAC: Nolasco
BASERUNNING SB: Ramirez (6)
FIELDING E: Ramirez (9)

Florida Marlins
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Ricky Nolasco (W, 3-2)	6.0	5	1	1	0	5	3.56
Clay Hensley (H, 3)	2.0	2	0	0	1	3	3.60
Leo Nuñez (S, 11)	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	2.61
Totals	9.0	8	1	1	1	9

Chicago Cubs
HITTERS	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	AVG
SS Ryan Theriot	4	0	0	0	0	1	.268
1B Derrek Lee	4	1	2	1	0	2	.333
3B Aramis Ramirez	4	0	2	0	0	1	.273
LF Alfonso Soriano	4	0	0	0	0	0	.191
CF Marlon Byrd	4	0	0	0	0	1	.237
RF Xavier Nady	4	0	2	0	0	1	.176
C Geovanny Soto	4	0	0	0	0	2	.273
2B Jeff Baker	4	0	2	0	0	1	.309
P Ted Lilly	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
-- PH Kosuke Fukudome	1	0	0	0	0	0	.220
-- PH Chad Tracy	0	0	0	0	1	0	.325
-- PH Mike Fontenot	1	0	0	0	0	0	.256
TOTALS	35	1	8	1	1	9
BATTING 2B: Lee (6) 3B: Ramirez (1) HR: Lee (5) RBI: Lee (14)
BASERUNNING CS: Soriano (2)

Chicago Cubs
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Ted Lilly (L, 4-3)	5.0	4	2	2	3	6	1.61
Jeff Samardzija	2.0	2	1	1	1	3	3.38
John Grabow	0.1	2	1	1	0	0	6.23
Chad Fox	1.2	0	0	0	0	1	4.73
Totals	9.0	8	4	4	4	10

[Cane_Mutiny]

Hey guys, sorry I stopped posting, I just didn't have the time to keep the updates coming. But, I have continued to play this franchise quite a bit, so I'll give you a quick recap.

I'm in early June and my Fish are sitting in 2nd place in the NL East with a 32-29 record. I had a cold month of May but climbed back to .500 by the first week of June. Now, I'm rolling with a 6-game winning streak after sweeping both the Mets and the Phillies, which allowed me to leapfrog the Mets and move within 2.5 game of the Phils. Now we're going into the first portion of the Citrus Series, taking on the Rays in Tampa.

My game has improved quite a bit (I moved the hitting difficulty from Veteran to All-Star and I'm considering moving the pitching difficulty from Hall of Fame to Legend). Only concern stats-wise right now is walks; we're dead last in both base on balls taken and base on balls allowed. It's getting better though, as I'm starting to take a lot more walks and I've also been pitching a bit more conservatively.

Hanley is hitting up around .340 with 12 homers and 40+ RBI. Cantu's got similar numbers, hitting .330 with 13 homers and 30+ RBI. Coghlan and Maybin struggled a lot to start the year but have been improving, and both are around .260 now. Cody Ross and Dan Uggla are still hitting over .300, but they're both on cold streaks at the moment, so that probably won't last much longer. Josh Johnson is 7-3 with a sub-3 ERA, and the rest of the staff has held their own.

Hopefully we can gain ground on the Phillies and stay in contention between now and the All Star break.