Brewers 9 - 5 Marlins
Final
  for this game

Marlins hope for some more home cooking in opener with Brewers

May 23, 2014 - 2:51 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The best home team in baseball -- the Miami Marlins -- try to continue that Marlins Park magic on Friday night when they entertain the visiting Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a three-game series.

Miami is 19-6 overall on home turf and has won 13 of its last 15 there as well, including a 4-3 decision over Philadelphia which was clinched when Christian Yelich's two-out single with the bases loaded in the ninth inning brought in the winning run.

Marlon Byrd had tied the game for Philadelphia in the eighth with a two-run homer, but Jake Diekman (2-2) undid that in the last of the ninth. He let Marcell Ozuna reach on a one-out single and Jeff Mathis kept the inning alive with a two-out base hit.

Pinch-hitter Reed Johnson's infield hit loaded the bases before Yelich lined a ball up the middle to score Ozuna and end the game.

Steve Cishek (4-1) fanned two in a scoreless top of the ninth. Henderson Alvarez went the first seven frames for Miami, limiting the opposition to four hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Ozuna added a two-run home run and Giancarlo Stanton had an RBI for the Marlins.

Miami shares the major-league lead with Pittsburgh with five walk-off victories.

"These guys don't quit," manager Mike Redmond said. "That's the beauty of this ballclub, is that no matter who it is, everybody knows their job, knows their role, and they're out there trying to win."

One of the Marlins' home aces, right-hander Tom Koehler, gets the call for the opener with a chance to improve on a pristine four-start home record.

He's 3-0 with a 0.64 earned run average in four starts in Miami.

In his most recent start, on Saturday at San Francisco, Koehler allowed four hits in seven scoreless innings of a 5-0 triumph.

"He was down in the strike zone and he had a great feel for his breaking ball," Redmond said. "The key for Tommy is to pound the strike zone. When he keeps the ball down, he's pretty tough."

Milwaukee has won just one of its last six games while hitting a collective .204.

"We'll have to figure out a way to get some baserunners on, so we can create some problems," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

The status of right fielder Ryan Braun is in doubt after he left Thursday's game -- a 5-4 loss at Atlanta -- with right-side tightness. He missed 14 games earlier this season.

Right-hander Marco Estrada takes the mound after allowing two home runs in his most recent outing, a 4-2 loss Sunday at Wrigley Field to the Chicago Cubs.

He's tied for the big-league lead with 12 home runs allowed.

"I was terrible. Plain and simple, terrible," Estrada said.. "I got to figure things out. My off-speed pitches haven't been there and that's what's letting me down. Plain and simple, it's just a bad pitched game."

He's 0-2 in three career starts against the Marlins with a 7.43 ERA.

On Thursday, Ryan Doumit's two-run single capped a three-run rally in the seventh inning that lifted the Braves to a 5-4 win over the Brewers in the finale of a four-game series.

Atlanta's winning rally came during a long half-inning that included a more than seven-minute delay over a mixed up pitching change, a successful Braves challenge overturning a force out and an infield RBI double by Gerald Laird.

Jonathan Lucroy had two RBI and Jean Segura finished with three hits and two runs scored for the Brewers.

Milwaukee was 5-1 against the Marlins last season.






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