BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
The schedule makers have been great to me the past two years as the Miami Marlins have been home for July 4th.
In 2023, the Marlins crushed the St. Louis Cardinals 15-2 at LoanDepot Park to improve to 50-37, while the Cardinals dropped to 35-50. The line score was indicative of what July 4 fireworks should consist of. Miami scored 15 runs and had 19 hits, while the Cardinals had two runs and nine hits.
The Marlins proceeded to make the playoffs.
As we move the clock forward to 2024, the Marlins hosted the Boston Red Sox.
Miami was 30-56 entering the game while Boston was 46-39. Boston won the first two games of this three game series by 8-3 and 7-2 scores.
What would occur in the final game of the series?
You couldn’t ask for a better media meal as there were hamburgers and hot dogs.
Boston starter Nick Pivetta pitched a sensational game by throwing no-hit baseball into the seventh inning. The right-handed hurler saw his no-hitter broken up as Jesus Sanchez tripled in the seventh inning, Pivetta went on to amass 10 strike outs of shutout baseball.
Meanwhile, for Miami, right-hander Kyle Tyler had a solid outing of his own by going 5.1 innings and gave up two runs. The Marlins trailed Boston 2-0 when Tyler departed the game.
Once both starters exited the game, the bullpens took over in a game that lasted 12 innings and Boston won 6-5.
What stood out in this game?
For Boston, David Hamilton and Tyler O’Neill had double steals on two occasions. They pulled the trick in the first inning and again in the sixth, Hamilton scored runs in those innings. By the end of the day, Hamilton’s stolen base total for the season hit 23.
The Red Sox led 2-0 until Miami erased the deficit in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the contest at 2-2. The Marlins runs came via the walk.
The teams remained tied at 2-2 until the 11th inning when they would be tied at 4-4.
The Red Sox would score a pair in the 12th, while Miami countered with one run for what turned into an eventful 6-5 triumph for the Red Sox.
The major bright spot for Miami was the bat of Sanchez, who had a double, triple and home run, but needed a single to get the cycle. The Marlins amassed eight hits and Sanchez was responsible for three of them.
Both teams had eight hits apiece.
Marlins DH Jake Burger had a day that he would like to forget as he had five at bats, all were strikeouts.
Zack Kelly pitched two innings for Boston and improved his record to 3-1, while John Andriese was the losing hurler and saw his record drop to 0-1.
A crowd of 20,539 saw this game. Boston improved to 47-39, while Miami dropped to 30-57. The game took 3:36 to complete.
The Red Sox earned a three-game sweep.
At the gate, in the first game, 14,676, in the second, 20,285 and in the finale, 20,539 gave the Marlins decent numbers for the series.
A tale of two July 4th contests that took different twists and turns.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloridatribune@gmail.com.
You can see his broadcasts by subscribing at no charge to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
In addition, Scott’s Book, “Lessons From The Microphone” can be purchased through Amazon-Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
