April 16, 2019 – Cubs 4, Marlins 0 – Marlins Park

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/cubs-vs-marlins/2019/04/16/567370#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=567370

 

Weather: 77 degrees, Partly Cloudy.

Wind: 12 mph, L To R.

Umpires: HP--Hoye, 1B--Ripperger, 2B--Kellogg, 3B--O'Nora.

Time: 2:49

Attendance: 8,137

 

Section 20, Row 4, Seat 1 – lower level, 4 rows in back of the “premium” field-level seating, halfway down the third base line.

 

The game brought to mind the image of a boa constrictor swallowing a small furry animal (perhaps because I spent a few hours earlier in the day at the Miami Zoo). The visitors notched single runs in the 3^rd and 4^th, and tacked on insurance runs off the Miami bullpen in each of the last two innings – most notably on a long 8^th-inning homer by Javy Baez, who seemed to have most of his fan club sitting a few rows behind me.

 

Meanwhile, the Marlins didn’t threaten Cubs starter Jose Quintana, as the only runner to reach second base in his 7+ innings of work was left-fielder Austin Dean, who doubled with 2 outs in the 7^th. They did generate some momentary excitement in the bottom of the 8^th when, with 2 out and 2 on, catcher Jorge Alfaro crushed a long fly to center field that Albert Almora caught just in front of the 407-foot sign. In terms of results, their high point probably came in the top of the 5^th, when right-fielder Isaac Galloway nailed Daniel Descalso attempting to advance to third on Kris Bryant’s fly out.

 

I drove to the park, since neither staying within walking distance nor taking public transit seemed like a particularly attractive option. It wound up being 15-20 minutes each way, with a couple tricky spots but no real difficulties, although the initial parking lot I had targeted turned out to be prepaid-only. The park is a lot better than the team, especially in terms of its concession offerings – more Latino items than I could possibly try in two days. Of particular note is their new “3o5” menu: $3 hot dogs! $3 pretzels, sodas, and bottles of water!! $5 for a pair of large, meat-filled mojo pork tacos!!! (Washington Nationals, please take note.) The in-game lines at one of the two stands offering the bargain menu were a little long, but moved quickly.

 

The informational displays were also quite good. The large main scoreboard included the batter’s picture and info, the full lineup of the team that’s batting (with uniform numbers but not positions), and (for the team on defense) a diagram of who’s playing what position and a list of the three batters due up next. A smaller video screen down the left field line provided some trivia about the current Miami batter or pitcher, and showed replays in sync with the main board. A pair of horizontal auxiliary boards in left-center and right-center displayed a set of running in-game information for each current pitcher, including total number of balls, strikes, and pitches thrown. They also showed who was warming up in the bullpen (or, in a first for me, the number of challenges left if no one was warming).

While Nationals Park has a large dedicated area for showing out-of-town scores, including base runners and number of outs, the Marlins have a smaller area along the left-center wall that rotates games four at a time, showing score and inning only. Interestingly enough, while the Nats show scores during innings but replace them with ads between innings, Miami does the opposite, which I actually prefer.

 

And of course, when playing a team such as the Cubs with a national following, the atmosphere is kind of … backwards. If you’re out on the concourse and hear a burst of loud cheers, it’s probably NOT good news for the home team. (Incidentally, the in-game radio broadcast was clearly audible in the men’s room, but not so much in the concourse itself, although there were plenty of TV monitors.)