Florida Marlins resist late assault to defeat Oakland Athletics 5-4 – MLB Update
The Florida Marlins overcame a late assault from the Oakland Athletics and went on to defeat them 5-4 at the O.co Coliseum in Oakland on Thursday, June 30.
The Marlins leaked four runs in the last three innings as the relief pitchers could not replicate the excellent performance their starting pitcher Chris Volstad had put in. Volstad was almost flawless with his pitching, mixing up the switch ball with the
faster one just when required. He leaked his only run in the seventh inning and by that time he was already showing signs of weariness. Nonetheless, Volstad’s performance won him his fourth game of the season.
The Florida Marlins opened their scoring account with Hanley Ramirez scoring his first run of the game in the second inning. It was pretty much monotonous from thereon until the fifth inning when the Marlins again took charge. This time, they ended up scoring
four runs in the spree initiated by Ramirez’s run again. Emilio Bonifacio, Logan Morrison and Mike Stanton contributed to the scoring as the visitors compiled a five-run lead with five innings played.
The A’s were finding it hard to hit against Volstad. David DeJesus finally broke the spell in the seventh inning, which then proved to be Volstad’s last.
Edward Mujica replaced Volstad in the eighth inning and Coco Crisp took advantage of this change without delay. Crisp hammered Mujica for a 370-feet home-run, completing his third for the season and bringing the lead down to three runs with the last inning
to play.
The Athletics successfully managed to stop the Marlins from scoring in the last inning and required only three runs to draw level. Leo Nunez came in from the Marlins to defend the lead. It turned out to be one of the most dramatic ends one can witness. Kurt
Suzuki and DeJesus smashed the ball into the stands one after the other as the Athletics scored two consecutive home-runs. They narrowly missed a third but Trevor Cahill’s careless pitching for the A’s proved to be harmful in the end. Cahill had leaked five
runs in just over four innings and this shallow performance led him to his sixth loss for the season.
The Marlins successive wins here has given them their first series after almost a month. They last won a series on May 24-26 against San Francisco Giants, playing them on the road.
Jack McKeon, the Florida Marlins’ manager said that he can feel some momentum building up in the team and all they need now is three to four consecutive wins to turn this into a streak.
The Marlins now travel to Texas for a three-game series against the Rangers from July 1-3.
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