After the Marlins split four games with Colorado over the weekend in Denver, they travelled to Phoenix where the offense continued to surge Monday night. Giancarlo Stanton built on his monstrous series at Coors with two long balls in the opener in Arizona; Justin Ruggiano added to his impressive season with a Stanton-sized home run; and John Buck continued his August tear by blasting his tenth homer of the season.
Things started calmly at Chase Field Monday night, as I experimented with 
twitter for the first time. My tweets regarding the game can be viewed directly from this blog on the panel on the right of the page.
In the top of the first inning, Jose Reyes drove a liner into the left field corner, and attempted to leg out a triple. He committed one of baseball’s cardinal sins when he was thrown out at third to end the inning. In the bottom of the frame, Jason Kubel blasted a home run into the right field seats. The ball travelled 439 feet, an impressive shot. It was the third-longest home run of the day in the MLB, it was also the third longest in the game.
And that was because the Marlins busted out in the fourth inning for nine runs on ten hits. Giancarlo Stanton highlighted the frame with a second-deck, three-run moonshot to give the Marlins a 4-1 lead after a Carlos Lee RBI-single tied the game. Justin Ruggiano followed up Stanton’s blast with a home run to centerfield. Any home run to center at Chase Field is impressive due to the 25-foot wall over 407 feet from the plate. Both homers measured in at 442 feet on Home Run Tracker–the two longest of the night in the majors. Donovan Solano, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Lee each tacked on some ribbies of their own following the home runs. The nine runs in the inning was one shy of the club record, coincidentally set at Chase Field in 2009.
Stanton added another home run to his tally in the seventh inning. This one was a disappointing shot, as it only travelled 398 feet. It was the only homer of his last five to travel anywhere under 440. John Buck followed that up two batters later with an opposite-field homer, into the pool area, Miami’s 12th run of the night.
Mark Buehrle was solid enough on the bump to earn his 11th win of the season. He pitched seven strong, allowed two earned on six hits while striking out four. Chris Hatcher finished off the game allowing one earned run on three hits.
Impressive performances from Jose Reyes (4-5, 2 RBI, 2 R), John Buck (4-5, HR), and Giancarlo Stanton (2-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI) highlighted Miami’s 56th win of the year. I watched this game on MLB.TV, and due to the fact that I was, for some reason, not allowed to switch to the Marlins broadcast, I was forced to listen to Arizona’s flawed commentators. On several occasions, Mark Grace slipped up and called the team the “Florida” Marlins. And, after John Buck’s home run in the seventh gave the Marlins their 12th run, the score on the screen displayed a ’13’ rather than a ’12.’
Regardless, Miami continued their western power surge in a rout of the Diamondbacks. Game two of this four-game set is scheduled for tonight at 9:40 EST, it will feature Ricky Nolasco and Trevor Cahill. Game four of this series was moved from Thursday to Wednesday, creating a doubleheader tomorrow. Game 1 is scheduled for 3:40, with game two at 9:40.
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