Marlins lose, 3-2
Stanton loses glove over fence attempting to catch fly ball
L.A. Dodgers complete series sweep.
MIAMI— This is the story of the Miami Marlins’weekend in a nutshell:
Giancarlo Stanton put one over the fence. No, not a home run. It was his glove, which flew off and disappeared on the other side of the wall in right-center when he leaped trying to catch a ball hit by the Dodgers’ Chris Taylor.
The ball caromed off thewall and Taylor ended up with a triple, while Stanton hoisted himself up and peered over in search of his lost piece of equipment.
The Marlins never did find what they were looking for in trying to stop the hottest team in baseball, though there was a brief pause while Stanton waited for the batboy to deliver a replacement glove.
Marcell Ozuna later stole a home run from former Marlin Enrique Hernandez, climbing thewall in front of the Clevelander in left field. Itwasn’t enough to prevent the Los Angeles Dodgers fromcompleting their third consecutive three-game series sweep with a 3-2 matinee win.
TheMarlins mounted a late threat when ChristianYelich drove a two-out, RBIsingle to center off All-Star closer Kenley Jansen in the eighth, and Ozuna followed with a single. But Jansen struck out pinch-hitter Justin Bour on three pitches.
Jansen went on to record his 23rd save, and the Dodgers had their ninth consecutive win andMLB-leading 11th sweep of the season.
Therewas anair of inevitability to all of it, beginning with the ninth-inning meltdown Friday by closer A.J. Ramos in the game
“We were playing pretty well going into the break. We ran into a little bit of a buzzsaw here.” DonMattingly, Marlins manager
Miami should have won and continuing with Dodgers rookie phenom Cody Bellinger hitting for the cycle Saturday.
“We’ve just got to rebound and get going,” MarlinsmanagerDonMattingly said. “We were playing pretty well going into the break. We ran into a little bit of a buzzsawhere. We had a chance to win that first one andwewere in this one. But we’ve just got to move on and get to the next series.”
Certainly on Sunday, with the Marlins pinning hopes on a rookie making his second start in the major leagues.
Chris O’Grady, riding confidence with his 1-0 career record, really was their best option. He pitched reasonablywell, allowing three runs and five hits in five innings, including Justin Turner’s 11th home run.
Still, he was no match against Rich Hill, who the Marlins keep mistaking for EliotNess. Theveteran lefty was untouchable in his last visit toMarlinsPark, tossing seven perfect innings.
Hill pushed the streak to 24 up and 24 down before Ozuna led off the second with a solid double to leftcenter.
The Marlins finally nicked him for a run in the fifth when pinch-hitter Ichiro Suzuki singled off the pitcher’s bare hand. That scored former Dodger A.J. Ellis, who had one of three Marlins doubles off Hill in five innings.
That cut the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1. But with the tying runs on base, Hill made Martin Prado his ninth strikeout victim and concluded his outing by getting Stanton to ground to third.
The previous time up, Stanton, whowent1for10in the series, twisted pretzellike and fell trying to hit a Hill bender breaking in on him. He bounced it to third andwas out before he could getupand out of the batter’s box.
O’Grady ’s did well in his first start to get the call to face an L.A. tidal wave that has now won 29 of 33 since June 7 and appears capable of rolling right through October.
The first three Dodgers hit drives totaling 1,144 feet. Christian Yelich caught the first two on the track in front of thehomerun sculpture. Turner’s belt was pulled farther to left and landed in the Clevelander, this one just out of Ozuna’s reach.
A few innings later, Ozuna, got a push off the chainlink fence and kept Hernandez’s drive from becoming another souvenir in the outfield bar.
“Yeah first thing when I was running back I just said, this is a chance to make a good play. It was right there not too far like in the first inning,” Ozuna said.
A leadoff walk to Logan Forsythe in the third and Taylor’s triple led to the other two runs O’Grady allowed. Turner drove in his second run with a sacrifice fly.
“Just hit my wrist at the top of the fence and glove just popped off,” said Stanton, whose glove was later retrieved.
Mattingly lauded O’Grady for keeping the game close and giving the Marlins a chance in the late innings.
“It was really just a couple small mistakes on a few pitches that really did us in,” O’Grady said.