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 3rd and 4th,
and tacked on insurance runs off the Miami bullpen in each of the last two
innings – most notably on a long 8th-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 7th. They did generate
some momentary excitement in the bottom of the 8th 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 5th, 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.)
