Houston Astros at Miami Marlins | 13 Apr 12

JD Martinez 2-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1st ever HR at Marlins Park
Gaby Sanchez 3-5, RBI, Walkoff 2B in the bottom of the 11th

Two main thoughts.

1. I hate scoring NL games. I’ve only done it once before and it’s just a pain - five pinch hitters for Houston! Seven pitchers for Miami! Look at all those lines. It’s a lot to keep track of.
2. What a game. This happened to be the MLB.tv free game of the day so I thought I’d tune in and work on my scoring. I had three hours to kill, so why not? I ended up having to leave after the 9th, listened to it on the At Bat app, and got back in time to watch Gaby Sanchez’s walkoff double. Hell of a game.

JD Martinez, a local boy from Miami, hit a two run shot in the top of the 8th to tie the game at four. Marlins Park, besides being kind of a monstrosity, is a home run sucking black hole. There were a lot of flies that would’ve been homers at a park like, say, Great American. Marlins Park, however, crushes the hopes and dreams of sluggers, and probably will all season.

Always love a walkoff. I almost didn’t want this one to end. I got back to the video just as Sanchez’s long fly hit the wall in left.

Heath Bell looked awful. At one point he had thrown something like 14 straight balls, walking the bases loaded with 2 out. He managed to work his way out of it but it was ugly. He lost the strike zone like a sock in the dryer. Thankfully it wasn’t a save situation and it didn’t cost him, but I like Heath Bell so I hope he isn’t in for a rough season. Also terrible: Jose Reyes with two errors.