Miami Marlins beat Houston Astros 4-0 as Carlos Zambrano throws nine innings - MLB Update
Starter Carlos Zambrano throws nine scoreless innings and the Miami Marlins win 4-0 against the Houston Astros in first game of three-match series at Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas on May 7, 2012.
Zambrano records his first win in the season as he kept the Astros struggling for runs and hits throughout the game. He managed to strike-out nine.
The Marlins had a rare game, which saw their bullpen unused.
Their offence has kind of taken a re-birth since the last week and almost every game, someone down in the line-up rises and hits distances.
Shortstop Jose Reyes is still far from his best, has somehow managed consistency in getting hits. He went 1-for-4 in the game.
Right fielder, Giancarlo Stanton is currently hitting .270, along with six homers and 17 RBIs. He hit once in four at-bats and contributed two RBIs in the game.
First run in the game came in the fourth, at the back of a homer by Stanton, which also led Logan Morrison to completing the run.
The fact all the runs the Marlins scored resulted from homers negates their ability to accumulate runs through conventional means.
Hitting homers is great, in the games where they are not forthcoming, run-production techniques will be tested thoroughly and that is when they can have trouble.
Catcher, John Buck and third baseman, Hanley Ramirez also struck home-runs.
However second baseman Omar Infante, who has been terrific over the last week, was unable to replicate his tremendous season batting average of .311 and .622 slugging percentage in the game.
Astros’ starter, Wandy Rodriguez had a terrible time on the mound. Although he threw eight innings, he was hit six times. Three home-runs coming off in the game were at his pitches.
Astros may have controlled the damage, had Rodriguez been gotten off early. Reliever Brandon Lyon, who followed him, threw a scoreless ninth inning.
Marlins’ manager Ozzie Guillen will have a sigh of relief as he did not have to turn to the bullpen, which has disappointed him most of the times in the season.
Heath Bell, who was sent under save situations on number of occasions, has blown up lead several times and thus the manager desperately needed his starter to do bulk of the job.
That same performance from the starter will have to continue, if the Marlins are going to build a strong winning-streak.
Tags: