MVN - Most Valuable Network

Volstad shines, Marlins take first two in LA

On Friday night in his first major league start, Chris Volstad came within one out of making major league history. The 21-year-old dominated the Dodgers through 8.2 innings, nearly ending the Marlins’ 267 game long drought without a complete game, an all time record.

After the 4th inning, the Marlins didn’t manage as much as a single hit off of Dodger pitching. However, they didn’t need to. Using a mean late breaking out pitch curve, a backdoor changeup and a mid-90’s fastball with late cutting action, Volstad only got into one 3 ball count, six 2 ball counts and got 13 ground ball outs. He struck out 6 and walked just 1. It took the Dodgers 8 innings to put their lead-off hitter on base but once they did, they made the most of it, bringing him around to score and chasing Volstad out of the game. The fan in me wanted to curse Fredi Gonzalez but looking at it from a manager’s point of view, it was the right move, especially with an unproven rookie out there. Volstad shouldn’t hang his head though. He was brilliant and has now won in both games he’s appeared in.

Kevin Gregg threw three pitches and got the save, his 19th of the year.

The Fish did all their damage offensively in the 1st, touching Los Angeles’ starter Eric Stults up for 3 runs on back-to-back homers by Jeremy Hermida and Jorge Cantu. Hermida’s two run shot was just his third hit in his last 21 ABs. Cantu is headed in the other direction. His solo job moved his OPS to .820, the highest it’s been since June 22.

The Marlins will look to go into the break with a series win on Saturday night. Ricky Nolasco vs Hiroki Kuroda. Both Nolasco and Kuroda are coming off of outstanding outings. A week ago in San Diego, Nolasco tossed 8 one run innings without issuing a walk. Meanwhile, Kuroda was busy coming within one pitch of tossing a perfect game against Atlanta. Since he came off the disabled list, Kuroda has not allowed a run.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm 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.