Game 12: Marlins Park, Miami, FL
St. Louis Cardinals vs Miami Marlins – Saturday, June 15, 2o13
We took an early flight out of New York and arrived in Miami around 10 AM. After posting the blog and checking into the hotel, we took a cab to the Biscayne Bayside area, where we had lunch at Miami’s Hard Rock Café. Afterward, we made our way to the ballpark using the city’s still evolving public transportation system. It only took us a couple of hours to negotiate the less-than-five mile trip from the Hard Rock Café to Marlins Park!
Still, we arrived at the ballpark, almost an hour before game time. It was a sweltering day, really hot and humid. It reminded us of our recent stop at Baltimore. There was, however, an unexpected relief! Marlins Park, which opened just last season, is the newest ballpark in the majors and has a retractable roof. Thankfully, the roof was closed and we watched our first-ever major league ball game indoors. It was a weird experience. Just being closed made the park seem smaller, but it was not. For example, the centerfield wall was about 408 feet away. During the game, we walked around the park and took plenty of pictures. It was a bit spooky because the place seemed virtually empty. The announced attendance was 16K plus, but it just didn’t seem like there were that many people. An interesting attraction was the Bobble-head Museum featuring bobble-heads from all thirty teams.
The game began with an incredible offensive onslaught by both teams. The Cardinals sent 10 men to the plate and jumped to a 5-0 lead in the first. Yadier “Yadi” Molina’s two-run single to left with the bases loaded opened the scoring. David Freese then hit an RBI single to center that was followed by Daniel Descalso’s RBI double to right. The ball was being sprayed all over the field by the Cards’ hitters. Peter “Pete” Kozma hit into a fielder’s choice, but the fifth run scored on the play when Freese came home. Just when it looked like the scales were off the fish, the Marlins bit back. They sent 9 men to the plate in their half of the first and responded with four runs! Juan Pierre got things going with a lead off triple (triples are always fun to watch) and came home on an infield single by Ed Lucas. Then, with two outs, Derek Dietrich walked. Adeiny Hechavarria (and we thought Thamattoor was a complicated name!) hit an RBI single to center and, after Greg Dobbs got plunked by a pitch, Rob Brantly hit a soft line drive that landed in front of the center fielder Jon Jay for a two-run single. Carlos “Mr. October Jr.” Beltran started the second inning with a solo shot to right that hit the foul pole (the fair pole?) to put the Cards up 6-4. The Fish came right back in the bottom of the frame when Giancarlo “Mike” Stanton hit a two-run homer to right center to tie it up. The home run set off an interesting display of jumping marlins, flashing lights, and water splashes on their multi-colored center field sculpture. (To see a Youtube video of a Marlins home run celebration click here.) Freese, following Beltran’s example, hit a lead-off solo shot in the third to untie the ball game. In the fifth, the Cards pitcher Lance Lynn ripped a two-run single to right to help his own cause and put St. Louis up 9-6. In the bottom of the frame, Brantly hit a sac fly to center that scored Hechavarria and brought the home team a run closer at 9-7. The Cards, however, blew it open in the eighth with RBI singles from Allen Craig and Molina. Later that inning, a wild pitch scored Craig to make it 12-7. The ninth inning was highlighted by a towering pop up by Ty Wigginton that nearly hit the cross-bracing of the roof before being caught by Stanton, and Beltran’s second homer of the game, this time to left, to give the Cards a 13-7 advantage which ended up being the final score. This was the highest scoring game that we have seen so far, a total of 20 runs off 28 hits!
The game ended around 7:30 PM, but thanks to another set of adventures with public transportation, we got back to our hotel around 10 PM. We turned in early, as we had another flight in the morning to our next town.
We’ll see you there. So long!
