Marlins Even Get Foul “Homers” against Mets

By Nicholas Stix


As Mets announcer Gary Cohen said a couple of innings ago in Florida, “The Marlins needed nine home runs to match their team record, but they didn’t expect to get them all in one game.”

The Marlins now have five home runs in the game, with a little help from the umpires. When the Marlins’ Cody Ross came up to bat in the seventh inning with a man on, he had already hit two upper deck jobs to left field, a three-run dinger and a two-run job, raising his season total from nine to eleven. On a full count, Mets reliever Royce Ring threw Ross a fastball, and he hit a long foul ball into the seats just left of the left field “fair” pole (i.e., a foul ball to non-baseball fans). But Ross started to jog around the bases, while stealing a look toward the home plate umpire, who did nothing to discourage him. Ring protested, to no avail, which means that an umpire had to have given the home run sign, of a finger going ‘round in the air.

Yesterday, in the last game of a home stand against Los Angeles, the Mets couldn’t pitch, hit, catch the ball, or turn a double play, and lost 9-1. (I know; I was there with my six-year-old. A hell of a way to get your first taste of big league baseball. How many years of therapy will it take, for him to get over the trauma?) Even the Los Angeles pitcher, Eric Stults, hit a rope up the middle for a hit, in going one-for-two.

I figured that would be the Mets’ worst game of the year, and that they would have it out of their system. I figured wrong.

Tonight, not only did Marlins righthander Anibel Sanchez (coming off a no-hitter) look like Bob Gibson on the mound, but Sanchez got hits his first two times at bat (equaling his previous season total), and drove in a run.

The game just ended, with the Marlins winning 16-5. That’s a baseball score, folks.