The Florida Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 thanks to a single from Chris Coghlan in the 8th to give the Fish the go-ahead run. Although the spectacular pitching from the Phillies’ Roy Halladay came to South Florida for the first time this year, the Fish were able to outlast the man who threw a perfect game against them last year. Josh Johnson was exceptionally dominant on the mound, and although he was stuck in a few bad situations, he was able to get the job done.
The Marlins extended their record up a win to 21-14 today after a dramatic game in Miami, Florida against division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. Both of the team’s aces were on the mound today, with Josh Johnson on the hill for the Fish and Roy Halladay for the Phillies. As expected, it was a pitching battle.
On the hill, Josh Johnson went 7.0 innings, giving up 1 run on 6 hits, his ERA being 1.63 for the game. Striking out 7 and only walking 3, JJ’s only run given up was a homer to Ryan Howard in the 2nd, which was clearly JJ’s worst inning of the game. After giving up a double following the Howard homer, he then hit a batter and walked another, giving the Phillies an opportunity with bases loaded to earn a few more runs- with no outs. Surprisingly- yet still unsurprisingly, JJ managed to strike out two in a row, then got Jimmy Rollins to groundout to end the inning. JJ was all-over-the-place a bit, like his last performance in St. Louis, but he settled down and got the job done successfully.
For the Phillies, their ace Roy Halladay did great until the final innings of the game. Giving up 2 runs on 8 hits, striking out 9, and only walking 2, Halladay (and pitching overall) was a dominant factor in the game tonight. Luckily, the Fish got two of their eight hits within the first two innings of the game, completely throwing out one-hitter or no-hitter possibilities.
Offensively, the Fish weren’t hitting much off of Halladay. Chris Coghlan managed to go 2-4, while Emilio Bonifacio and Gregg Dobbs went 1-3, all of whom have doing great in past games. Surprisingly, National League Player of the Week Gaby Sanchez went 0-4, and just looked completely off today. Nonetheless, Coghlan won the game for the Fish with his go-ahead run in the 8th, which scored Ozzie Martinez to give the Fish the lead 2-1.
In the top half of the 8th, Mike Dunn, who got the win, came in to pitch for the Fish, and delivered a 1-2-3 inning with two groundouts and a strikeout. In the 9th, Leo Nunez came in to dominate on the mound; striking out the leadoff man, walking the following batter (2-2 pitch was a strike, confirmed on FOX Trax, but Buck dropped the ball, umpire didn’t give Leo the strike), and making the next two batters to groundout. And “Lights Out Leo” welcomed his 12th save of the year.
After today’s win, the Fish split the series with Phillies, and tomorrow’s pitching match-up will be similar to today’s. Ricky Nolasco (3-0, 3.23 ERA) is facing off against the Phils’ Cliff Lee (2-3, 3.69 ERA). Follow @TheFightinFish on Twitter for Live-Game updates.
-Derek