Marlins win as they mourn fallen teammate
MIAMI — Dee Gordon and the Miami Marlins wore their emotions on the sleeves of their No. 16 jerseys.
Jose Fernandez would have loved it.
Gordon homered leading off the first inning for the Marlins, who totalled 14 hits and mixed cheers with the tears of the past two days by beating the New York Mets 7-3 on Monday night in their first game since Fernandez died in a boating accident.
“We were hitting balls underwater pretty much,” slugger Giancarlo Stanton said. “Our eyes were full of water.”
Adam Conley pitched three scoreless innings subbing for Fernandez, who had been scheduled to make his final start of the year. Justin Bour went 3-for-3 and Gordon had four hits, including one that will go down in Marlins lore.
Paying tribute to their charismatic ace, the left-handed-hitting Gordon stepped to the plate as a righty leading off the first. After one pitch, Gordon switched to his customary left side, and pulled a 2-0 delivery from Bartolo Colon into the upper deck for his first homer of the season.
The improbable clout brought tears, even from Gordon. He began crying as he circled the bases.
“It seemed like it took forever,” he said. “I was trying to get back to my teammates as fast as possible. I was just wondering why Jose wasn’t there standing on the top step cheering for me.”
After crossing the plate Gordon tapped his chest and waved toward the sky, and sobbed as teammates hugged him in the dugout.
Stanton said the homer from the 170-pound Gordon was unbelievable but easy to explain.
“Pure emotion,” Stanton said. “There’s no other way it could be scripted, unless you’re in a movie rewriting everything that just happened.”
Even the Mets appreciated what Gordon’s homer meant.
“I saw him crying when he rounded first base,” Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “I was crying too.”
Each of the Marlins wore black jerseys bearing Fernandez’s No. 16 and name, a tribute they had suggested. Stanton delivered an emotional speech as the entire team gathered at the mound moments before the game, and then contributed a hit, a run and a running, lunging backhanded catch in right field to rob Jay Bruce.
The portly Bour hit his first career triple, which he capped with a belly flop into third before rising to strike a muscleman pose that had his teammates and the crowd of 26,933 smiling.
A.J. Ramos pitched a hitless ninth. When he retired Curtis Granderson to end the game, the Marlins gathered once more around the edge of the mound and bowed their heads, and then tossed their caps onto the dirt and kneeled, tears flowing yet again for Fernandez.
“It’s his spot,” Mattingly said. “Just kind of saying bye.”