Game Recap #19 St. Louis Cardinals @ Miami Marlins

On opening day this year, the defending champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, visited the newest park in the league down in Miami. Marlins Park has been a divisive place, with the funds acquired to put it in existence coming from the taxpayers through less than kosher methods as some might believe. Along with the team, with such personalities as Ozzie Guillen and Carlos Zambrano, as well as the egos of Hanley Ramirez and Logan Morrison, this could be a very volatile situation, and would make sense to be an easy victory for St. Louis. Early on, this looked like a very realistic possibility, as the Cardinals got to Miami starter Anibal Sanchez very early. Jon Jay got one early with a walk and was knocked over to third base on a Matt Holliday double before the scoring started with a Carlos Beltran sacrifice fly to get Jay home and a David Freese double to drive in Holliday. Meanwhile, St. Louis starter Joe Kelly worked well until the fifth inning, where he allowed Omar Infante and Gaby Sanchez both on to the bases with walks, before John Buck hit a single to get Infante in and Jose Reyes grounded out to bring Sanchez home. Kelly left after six innings, giving up five hits and two walks as well as two earned runs while striking out three. Sanchez was chased after seven innings, giving up a Tony Cruz solo home run in the seventh, which left him with a line of seven hits, two walks, three earned runs, and four strikeouts. Sanchez was in position for the win when he left thanks to Buck taking Fernando Salas deep to tie the game with his solo home run, before pinch hitter, the aforementioned Morrison hit a solo shot off of the next reliever, Sam Freeman. Miami got an insurance run in the eighth inning as Greg Dobbs singled his way on base, followed by another single from Justin Ruggiano, setting up an RBI double by Infante to make it 5-3 when Dobbs got home, and it would have been 6-3 had Ruggiano been safe. Ruggiano did have the only stolen base in the game earlier though. This run came off of Victor Marte, and the final stood from here at 6-3. Sanchez was in line for the win, while the ever-shaky Heath Bell shut the door strongly tonight for the save, and Freeman was on the hook for the loss. Just goes to show, even a band of misfits can take down a champion.