April 17, 2019 – Cubs 6, Marlins 0 – Marlins Park

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/cubs-vs-marlins/2019/04/17/567371#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=567371

 

Weather: 80 degrees, Partly Cloudy.

Wind: 10 mph, L To R.

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

Time: 2:25

Attendance: 10,247

 

Section 15, Row 12, Seat 14 – 8 rows farther back than last night, just to the left of home plate

 

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was …

 

Cubs take an early lead, check. Scoreless drought for both teams in the middle innings, got it. Another Javy Baez homer in the top of the 8^th, you bet. And I go oh-for-Miami in terms of the home team scoring a run.

 

There were a few differences. For one, this time the Cubs more or less broke the game wide open with a 4-spot in the 3^rd off Sandy Alcantara, which started innocently enough with 2 outs and Kris Bryant on second.

 

Meanwhile, the Marlins went down 1-2-3 in six of their nine at-bats. Jorge Alfaro’s second-inning single was the home team’s only runner in the first 6 innings off Cole Hamels; he was promptly erased on a double play. They did mount a one-out rally in the 7^th, with singles by Martin Prado and Alfaro sandwiched around a Bryant error. Things got more interesting when Hamels fell behind 3-0 to Starlin Castro, but he recovered to fan Castro and then retire Miguel Rojas.

 

I’d certainly recommend the pulled pork sandwich at La Pepa (one of two stands curated by José Andrés), a reasonable ballpark buy at $12. Having 25% more people Cubs fans meant that the in-game lines were longer than Tuesday, so I went to the La Familia stand out in the right field (shorter lines) to get my $3 Nathan’s hot dog after the fifth inning.