MVN - Most Valuable Network

Gregg can’t hold late lead, Rockies walk off in 11th

For the first time in two weeks, the Marlins’ defense didn’t collapse around Andrew Miller. Instead, it collapsed around the bullpen. Still, Florida somehow got the ball to Kevin Gregg, who has pitched well as of late, converting his last two save opportunities without much trouble, clinging to a one run lead in the bottom of the 11th. Gregg walked two, committed an error and gave up a two run walk-off single to Ryan Spilborghs. The Rockies won 6-5.

The Marlins struggled early against another soft tossing lefty Mark Redman, only managing to scatter six hits against the journeyman. All of them were singles. Two of them were infield singles. Even the two runs they plated in the 2nd came on softly hit balls, a Miller sacrifice bunt and a Paul Hoover base knock. Redman got through 6 innings on just 88 pitches, inducing 11 ground balls and 3 double plays. He struck out 2 and walked 1. While the Marlins couldn’t solve Redman, who came into this game with an ERA near 8, they took the lead back in the 8th off of Taylor Buchholz, who has been lights out this year. Coming into tonight, Buccholz hadn’t given up a home run in his last 51.2 innings dating bating to last season. After Jeremy Hermida reached on a base hit, he served up Jorge Cantu’s 15th of the year. Cantu’s blast marked a second consecutive night that the Marlins took the lead via a two run bomb while trailing in the late going.

Logan Kensing preserved the lead in the bottom of the 8th… but the Marlins’ defense didn’t. Kensing induced two pop ups to begin the inning but they both dropped in front of outfielders. A strikeout later, Jeff Baker sac flied in the tying run for his fourth RBI of the night. Instead of ending the night as the league leader in come-from-behind wins, Florida padded the National League lead in errors (71) and in worst team fielding percentage (.977).

Cody Ross capped off another good night at the plate, doubling in the go ahead run that set the stage for the Gregg debacle in the top of the 10th. With the 3-5 night, Ross extended his hit streak to a modest six games. Over that span, he has homered once and driven in 4 runs. Even more surprising is the fact that he’s done most of that damage against righties, who he only hit sub .220 against coming into this season. Meanwhile, his backup, Alfredo Amezaga has been hot as of late too, hitting safely in four of his last five starts. Nice to see after the position was a revolving door last season.

The new trouble spot is quickly becoming the closer’s role. On the year, Gregg is 6-3 with a 2.47 ERA and 15 saves. Not to shabby. But in this case, the stats lie. Including tonight’s meltdown, Gregg has blown his last four one run saves. In 12 innings with RISP, he owns a 6.00 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. Meanwhile, Joe Nelson, who has some experience closing games, has only given up one earned run in his last 15 innings pitched, dating all the way back to May. Gregg has been good in situations where he has at least one insurance run, though so I wouldn’t want to see him completely removed from the role. Some type of strange closer by committee situation could work. Nelson in one run games and Gregg for everything else.

The Marlins will try to even the series tomorrow. Scott Olsen vs rookie Greg Reynolds. Olsen was solid his last time out, tossing his fifth quality start in his last six outings but against Dan Haren, run support was a bit hard to come by. The Marlins wound up winning the game but Olsen wound up taking a no decision. It wasn’t the first time he had some hard luck in the month of June. Despite collecting a 3.13 ERA in the month, he went 0-2. The 24-year-old will look to rebound against the Rockies, a team he has been so-so against in his career. In 6 starts against the 2007 National League champs, Olsen is 1-1 with a 4.46 ERA. Reynolds’ major league career has gotten off to an up and down start. While he has enjoyed some quality outings like his 6 inning, 1 earned run win on June 7, he has hit some bumps in the road like his 3.1 inning, 8 earned run outing against the Tigers. Reynolds has been good of late. Even though he took a loss in each one, he made it to at least the 6th inning in each of his last two starts.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 5:09 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.