Hialeah native Gonzalez nearly no-hits Miami

MIAMI — Gio Gonzalez spent a portion of his Monday afternoon not preparing for his start against the Miami Marlins, but meeting the 5-month-old daughter of his late friend, Jose Fernandez, in the bowels of Marlins Park, part of a larger family commemoration of what would have been Fernandez’s 25th birthday.

Gonzalez spent Monday night nearly no-hitting the team Fernandez left behind.

The Washington Nationals beat the Marlins, 1-0, on a night the left-handed Gonzalez, a Hialeah native, held Miami without a hit until the ninth inning.

“Quite honestly, I thought we did an awful job with him as far as making him pitch,” manager Don Mattingly said. “Now, I’m not taking anything away from him, but we did a really bad job of making him throw enough strikes.

“It was like we were afraid to get a strike on us. I thought that hurt us. We have to force him to throw more pitches, be willing to hang in there with him, let him make some mistakes.”

With three outs left, Dee Gordon lined a single to center field to end the nono bid. The Miami crowd gave Gonzalez a round of applause after Gordon reach, and again moments later when Nationals manager Dusty Baker lifted him for reliever Sean Doolittle.

Gordon allowed the Marlins to avoid infamy, but also gave them a chance to win it, sending their biggest bats to the plate down by only one.

“I was like, oh yeah, G’s gonna go deep and we’re going to win,” Gordon said.

It didn’t happen. Giancarlo Stanton grounded into a double play. Christian Yelich had an infield single, but Marcell Ozuna popped out to the infield to end it in 2 hours and 12 minutes.

A no-hitter would have been the second of the year in the majors and at Marlins Park. Right-hander Edinson Volquez’s threw a no-hitter June 3 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

This was also the Nats’ second no-hit bid of the year against Miami. Max Scherzer, who is pitching Tuesday, didn’t allow a hit for 8 1⁄3 innings at Marlins Park in June.

Gonzalez dominated from the start Monday. Miami had baserunners in the first two innings, on walks to Stanton and Tyler Moore. Stanton got caught stealing by a significant margin, running on what he thought was a full-count pitch.

Then Gonzalez settled in, at one point retiring 14 in a row and 18 of 19 into the eighth inning.

The Marlin who came closest to a hit might have been third baseman Mike Aviles, who in the second inning popped up to shallow center. Brian Goodwin rushed in and made the sliding grab to end the inning and preserve what at the time seemed like an innocuous two strong innings.

Gonzalez’s near-history overshadowed a tremendous effort from Marlins right-hander Jose Urena, who allowed one run in eight innings.

Urena scattered three hits and a walk, striking out six. He threw more than 15 pitches in an inning only once.