The Marlins rallied late, but Atlanta’s Brian McCann came through with a key three-run homer in the 10th inning to push the Braves past Florida, 6-3, before 14,226 fans at Land Shark Stadium.

McCann drove a 2-2 slider from Luis Ayala into the seats beyond the right-center-field fence. The All-Star catcher had a big day after entering the game 0-for-16 against the Marlins the season. McCann finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and three RBIs.

Atlanta’s backstop was not the only Braves player to enjoy a big game as starter Javier Vazquez dominated Marlins hitters most of the night. The right-hander tired toward the end of his outing, allowing a leadoff home run to Cody Ross in the eighth inning but still pitched well. Vazquez held Florida to three runs on five hits over 7 1/3 innings while striking out eight.
Ross’ home run in the eighth gave the Marlins momentum as they put together a rally against reliever Mike Gonzalez. With two outs and the bases loaded, Jorge Cantu hit a slow roller to third baseman Chipper Jones that allowed pinch hitter Brett Carroll to score and tie the game at 3.
Florida starter Rick VandenHurk struggled early, giving up two runs in the second on a Casey Kotchman double to center field. The right-hander would settle down the rest of the way, finishing his outing allowing two runs on four hits over six innings while striking out a career-high nine batters.

Not much to say about this one. The opportunities to win were there, they just didn’t seize them, unfortunately. Bases left loaded in the bottom of the 8th in a tie game, and then in the bottom of the 9th, runners on first and second with 1 out and Brett Carroll grounds into the double play. Those hurt.

Gotta give out the Scott Olsen Memorial Mugshot Award, for the single player most responsible for the failings of the ball club on a given night. This is most unfortunate, as thanks to our failings as bloggers during the loss to the Dodgers last weekend, it had been damn near two weeks since the SOMMA had to be given out. I rather liked that streak.

Some might argue Luis Ayala deserves it for giving up the three run bomb to lose it, but he was in a tough spot, with the heart of the Braves order up and nobody available in the pen to save him, so I’ll give him a pass. One might also think Fredi Gonzalez might deserve it for intentionally walking Chipper to get to Brian McCann who hit the home run, but that’s also a tough spot. We’re talking about pitching to Chipper with one on and first open (.968 career OPS vs RHP) or McCann with a potentional DP (.902 career OPS vs RHP) possibility. Can’t fault him for playing the percentages. Just about the only thing I constantly defend Fredi on, even when it doesn’t work out.

No, my choice (Which is all that matters) goes to the man who struck out 3 times and went 0-5 batting in the number two hole.. With runners on first and second, he comes to the plate with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th. Pitcher throws a wild pitch, and the runners advance. If he can just get on base somehow, Hanley will get a chance…

And another strikeout for Emilio Bonifacio, who now ranks 2nd in the race for the lowest OPS in the NL. Don’t stop believin’, Emilio! Marlins’ nation is with you!

Wipe that grin off your face, Boner. You blew it!

At some point, the team will realize Gaby should start a game, right? I mean, I was defending Bonifacio aloud when he had that little month streak where he put together a .730 OPS and looked totally respectable, though outcast as a corner infielder still.

What’s sad is at this point, I’d almost be upset if Bonifacio was demoted or benched. I mean, it’s probably too late. Why make the move now?

Note: I don’t expect him to be demoted at all. We will probably acquire an Arthur Rhodes and that is all.

A poster over at SoFlaMarlins.com probably summed up Emilio Bonifacio as perfectly as anyone ever could, so I’ll close this rant up with that. I didn’t expect this to turn into a Bonifacio rant, but thus is the nature of light night writing, it often veers towards that anyways.

Bonifacio’s like that kid on the little league team who really doesn’t like baseball and would rather play xbox or fill his glove with ants, but his dad’s the coach and his son is going to bat 4th, play short-stop and pitch, and at first everyone was really angry, but then they realized it wasn’t the kids fault he was constantly set up to fail so then everyone just kinda hoped that the kid wouldn’t have to deal with a big moment because everyone but the dad knew how it would turn out and the failure isn’t even met with anger it’s just kinda met with sad silence and everyone is just really uncomfortable with the whole thing.

@

The Marlins are back at Land Shark Stadium after a very successful West Coast road trip in which they went 5-1.  The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Fish as they host the streaking Atlanta Braves.  Both the Marlins and the Braves come into tonight’s game with identical records at 51-48, seven games back in the NL East, and both teams trail the Rockies by three games in the Wild Card.  The Marlins offense showed signs of life in the Dodger series averaging 5.6 runs per game with a team batting average of .287, and will have to continue to stay hot against a great Atlanta rotation. The Marlins rotation will have to stop two particular Atlanta bats who have wreaked havoc against the Marlins, Chipper Jones (.314 BA, .939 OPS) and Matt Diaz (.414 BA, 1.130 OPS). The Marlins are 6-4 in their last 10, and have chopped down three of the six teams that were ahead of them in the Wild Card race.  With trade rumors swirling around the clubhouse, the Fish must stay focused and keep winning games if they plan on staying buyers with just a few days left till the trade deadline expires.

The Braves are one of the hottest teams in the Majors right now with a 15-8 July record, and they can thank Yunel Escobar for that.  Yunel doesn’t get much attention playing in the short stop studded NL East, but his July numbers are hard to ignore. In 65 at bats, he has a .369 BA, .461 OBP, and a 1.123 OPS.  This will be the last three games of the Braves six game road trip, they come into tonight’s series 2-1 thus far after taking the series in Milwaukee.  The Braves pitching staff has been dominant in July with a National League leading ERA of 3.12.

Let’s take a look at the pitching matchups for the series.

7/28/09, 7:10 PM ET

Game of the Series

Jair Jurrjens, RHP (9-7, 2.67)

Ricky Nolasco, RHP (7-7, 5.42)

Another game one ” Game of the Series” for me.  After the off day, I’m curious to see if the Marlins intensity stays the same after leaving Dodger Stadium.  Jair Jurrjens is pitching out of his mind right now and the Marlins will need to bring him back down to earth to pull this win off.  It will be ideal if the Marlins can scratch out a few early runs to support Nolasco, but Jurrjens is the type of pitcher you can get to the 2nd time around in the batting order, teams are hitting .206 against Jurrjens the first time through, and .256 the second time through.  If Nolasco can limit any first inning damage and keep the extra base hits down, he should be in for a much needed quality start for the Marlins to have a chance of taking this game.

Braves: Jair Jurrjens gets the nod for Atlanta.  Jair out-pitched Tim Lincecum his last time out. The right hander threw 7 2/3 innings of one run ball while striking out a season high nine batters in the process.  Jurrjens has won four of his last five game and looks to beat the Marlins for the second time in 2009.  He picked up the win back in May against Florida while throwing seven innings and giving up two earned runs.

Notable Marlin vs. Jurrjens

Hanley Ramirez - 4-12, 3HR, 3RBI, 3B, .333

Dan Uggla - 5-11, 2B, 1RBI, .455

Emilio Bonifacio - 3-7, .429

Cody Ross - 2-5, HR, 3 RBI, .400

Marlins vs. RHP

29-34, 4.4 rpg

Marlins: Nolasco takes the mound after a dominant performance in San Diego his last time out.  Ricky limited the Padres to just two hits, no earned runs, while striking out 10.  Ricky had ran into a two game hiccup before facing the lackluster Padre offense, so this outing should be a little more telling as to where he stands.  Atlanta has not been kind to Nolasco in the past, his career numbers are 1-4 with a 5.18 ERA.

Notable Braves vs. Nolasco (yikes)

Brian Mcann - 7-19, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .368

Chipper Jones - 9-16, 3 2B, 3 HR, 6 RBI, .563

Yunel Escobar - 5-10, 3 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .500

Matt Diaz - 3-8, 2B, .375

Braves vs. RHP

31-33, 3.9 rpg

7/29/09, 7:10 PM ET

Kenshin Kawakami, RHP (5-7, 4.04)

Josh Johnson, RHP (9-2, 2.80)

Braves: Kenshin Kawakami went five innings his last time out, giving up one earned run with three walks and a strike out.  He took the loss in his last game against the Marlins, he pitched six innings while giving up four earned runs.

Marlins: Johnson will look to keep things rolling after limiting the potent Dodgers offense to just three earned runs over seven innings, improving his record to 9-2.  One word comes to mind when talking about Josh Johnson, dependable, he has yet to allow more than three earned runs in 17 straight games.  Johnson looks to make it 18 games in a row on Wednesday, he is 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA lifetime against the Braves.

7/30/09, 7:10 PM ET

Javier Vazquez, RHP (8-7, 2.98)

Rick VandenHurk, RHP (1-0, 2.45)

Braves: Javier Vazquez had his first bump in the road in a long time.  Vazquez allowed four earned runs over seven innings in Milwaukee, it was his was his first time giving up three plus runs since June 17th against the Reds.  He is 6-6 with a 4.67 ERA in his career against the Marlins.

Marlins: Rick VandenHurk was equally impressive in his second start of 2009.  VandenHurk limited the Dodgers to just one run over five innings on Saturday, but did not factor in the outcome.  VandenHurk has had some memorable games against the Braves in the past, and is 2-0 with a 4.19 ERA.