Giancarlo Stanton Helps Put Marlins Into First Place With Record Setting Blast

The Miami Marlins are in first place in the National League East after Friday's 8-2 win

The Miami Marlins continued their hot start to 2014 with their fourth win in five tries on Friday. The final score of this one was 8-2 over the San Diego Padres.

Giancarlo Stanton set a new Marlins Park record in the first inning with a 484 foot home run to left-center field that nearly left the ballpark. The two-run blast was gone off the bat and was a towering shot over the bar area on the concourse. The slugger now has two home runs in five games and has been swinging a hot bat as of late. Stanton has four extra base hits in all and is slugging .688 thus far.

Adeiny Hechavarria kept swinging a hot bat of his own with a four-hit game including a double. The shortstop now has three games of at least three hits and is hitting .579 on the season. Casey McGehee also stayed hot picking up his 10th run batted in of the year to keep him in the lead for Major League Baseball. The 10 RBI also represent the most by a Marlins player in franchise history after five games. Jarrod Saltalamacchia had his best day as a Marlin going 3-4 with a two run double.

The win for Miami put them atop the National League East standings as the Washington Nationals had lost earlier in the day. It took until the 17th game of the season in 2013 for the Marlins to win their fourth game of the season. At the time, that team was 4-13 and already firmly planted in last place – the same location they would finish the year in with 100 losses. Last season, Miami never spent a day above fourth place and has already spent three days in first place in this young season .

Tom Koehler made his season debut and turned in a quality start with six innings in which he allowed two runs on seven hits. Koehler had a shut out going until his final inning of work where he seemed to be a bit fatigued. The right-hander lost some speed on his fastball and some of his command as well but battled his way out of the inning. After Koehler exited, Brad Hand entered to pick up the remaining load with three scoreless innings. Hand’s effort saves the bullpen for the remaining two games of the series. With the three inning stint, Hand also was credited with his first career save.

The Marlins will send ace Jose Fernandez to the mound on Saturday as they look to take their second series of the year.

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