Jose Fernandez Brilliant Again in 3rd Straight Win For Marlins

The Miami Marlins kept rolling along on Saturday as they improved to 5-1 on the season with a 5-0 victory over the San Diego Padres

Jose Fernandez was masterfully brilliant again going 6.2 innings and punching out eight hitters along the way. The win was credited to Fernandez who is now 2-0 after two starts made. Things started slow for Fernandez as he battled with his control and threw nearly 60 pitches in the first three innings. After that, the Marlins’ ace settled in and was able to work the next 3.2 innings on only 48 pitches finishing the night with 108 thrown total. That pitch count was one shy of Fernandez’s career high per MLB.com. The reigning Rookie of the Year allowed only three hits and no runs to reduce his E.R.A to 0.71.

The last batter faced by Fernandez reached first on a strikeout that got away from Jarrod Saltalamacchia. With Fernandez’s pitch count on the rise, manager Mike Redmond turned to A.J. Ramos who promptly struck out the only hitter he opposed. The pitchers spot was due up first in the seventh for Miami which ended Ramos’ night quickly. Mike Dunn took over in the eighth and turned in a scoreless inning of his own. In the ninth, Carlos Marmol entered in what was a non-save situation and worked a scoreless inning to preserve the shutout.

Giancarlo Stanton’s big start to 2014 continued with a two-hit night which included an RBI double in the seventh inning to pad Miami’s lead. Stanton also knocked in a run earlier in the game to give him 11 RBI on the season. Not to be outdone, Casey McGehee also added two more hits including his fourth double of the year. McGehee is now hitting .450 which includes a triple and 9 RBI making him one of the best comeback stories in Major League Baseball thus far. As a team, Miami had ten hits which gave them four games with at least ten hits on the season thus far.