Reds-Marlins: Cody Ross, Florida Walk Off With Victory

Saturday, June 7—A wet night in Miami led to both a 16-minute rain delay at the start of Saturday's contest between the Cincinnati Reds and the Florida Marlins. It also led to very sloppy defense between the two teams.

Once the tarp was removed from Dolphin Stadium, the Marlins built an early lead off Cincinnati ace Bronson Arroyo, tacking on two runs in the second and a run in each of the fourth and fifth innings.

However, Florida's defense collapsed in the middle innings, allowing the Reds to climb back into the game, eventually tying it at four in the sixth.

In the home half of the seventh, the Marlins added another unearned run off of reliever Jarod Burton after first baseman Joey Votto made a throwing error.

Cincinnati gained their first lead of the night by scoring three runs in the eighth, each of them charged to Logan Kensing, who also wound up with a blown save, his first of the season.

Adam Dunn started the late-inning comeback by stroking a 2-2 fastball over the centerfield wall, which tied the game at five.

Kensing settled down and retired the next two batters, but allowed Jose Valentin, who was hitting for Burton, to reach base after Valentin swung at a wild pitch for the third strike.  Three straight singles, later the Reds had a 7-5 lead going into the bottom of the eighth.

After two uneventful half-innings, Reds' closer Francisco Cordero came in to close out the victory in the bottom of the ninth.  Marlins' third baseman Jorge Cantu started things off with a double to left and advanced to third on a groundout by Wes Helms. 

After Dan Uggla walked, Luis Gonzalez, who ripped a two-run double in the second and a solo homer in the fourth, hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Cantu.

Then with two outs, centerfielder Cody Ross launched an 0-1 fastball over the right-center field fence, sending the Marlins to an improbable 8-7 walk-off victory.

The home run was just the tip of the iceberg for Ross, who went 2-for-4 with a run, three RBI, a stolen base, an outfield assist and a walk and was definitely a key part of the Marlins' success. 

Cantu also had a successful night, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.  He wound up a triple shy of the cycle.

Ken Griffey Jr., started the game and went 1-for-3 with a single and two walks.  He was replaced in the eighth inning by David Weathers in a double switch. Junior remains at 599 career home runs.

Florida starter Scott Olsen allowed only four hits in six innings while striking out five and walking one, but three errors in the field behind him, including Cantu's Major League leading 13th, allowed four unearned runs to score. 

Olsen saw his ERA drop from 3.72 to 3.44, but only came away with a no-decision.  Burke Badenhop (2-3) came away with the victory, allowing just one hit in 1.1 innings pitched.

Conversely, Reds' starter Bronson Arroyo struggled immensely, allowing four earned runs on seven hits (two of which were home runs) and two walks, though he struck out six.

He lasted only 4.2 innings, mostly because of his lack of accuracy.  At one point in the second inning, Arroyo threw nine straight balls, and overall threw only 58 strikes out of 103 pitches to 23 batters faced.  Cordero (2-1) got stuck with the loss and blew his third save of the year.

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