Marlins even up World Series match-up with the Mariners

Marlins vs. Mariners Game Two World Series 6-12-19, at Morton Field

READING- Game Two of the 2019 RBRL World Series was played on Wednesday evening and with the Marlins 11-7 victory they forced a deciding game with the Mariners on Friday.

For the sixth consecutive year the RBRL Championship series will go to a third game.

The last team to sweep was the 2013 White Sox in their series versus the Padres (this was also the last WS completed at Symonds Field).

As seems to be pattern of the last several years the middle game of the Series was not pretty and the game film will not be sent to Cooperstown for the historical archives, in fact Abner Doubleday probably did a couple of turns in his grave last night.

The Marlins broke open a 2-2 game in the third inning benefitting from 6 walks and a clutch two-out two RBI single from Ryan Miller to take a 8-2 lead.

In the middle innings Josh Blumenshine tried to steal a couple of innings with thirteen year old Marcus Champlin-Scharff (a strike machine) and save innings for one of his aces (Ryan Mulvey).

“MCS” proved effective at letting his fielders make the plays and not giving the Mariners any gifts, as Coach Blanchard likes to say it is “one against nine”.

The Mariners were stirring a bit in the fifth with Ben McGilvray doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly from Matt Gerardi and then Michael Fabiano (2 hits) singled.

But the RBRL World Series is where heroes are made, and on this night it was fourteen year old Jordan Whitmer filling that role.

The Mariners Matt Jones hit a short fly down the left field line and Whitmer broke on the ball hard and with full extension dove and made the catch to prevent another run from scoring.

In the top of the sixth and holding a 9-4 lead the Marlins tacked on two more runs sparked by Series MVP candidate Mike DiPietro who doubled to start the inning.

If DiPietro was “flying under the radar’ for the past three years those days are over as the swift centerfielder has been dominant in every aspect of the game fielding, throwing, running and hitting.

No hit up the middle of the diamond has been safe harbor with DiPietro in the outfield as he threw out his fourth runner at first base from centerfield during the playoffs in the second inning to limit a Mariner rally.

Miller’s sacrifice fly brought home DiPietro and later in the inning Ryan Branson scored on a wild pitch after singling.

Miller’s hitting (2 H, 3 RBI) along with several nice plays at shortstop and two effective pitched outings is making a run at MVP himself.

As noted by another coach at the press table “not so fast on the DiPietro for MVP talk”

The Mariners not be slighted in the accolades department never gave up despite the 11-4 deficit and put on a late charge in the sixth.

The three run rally was aided by walks and by out smarting the Marlins on the bases once again (as they did in Game one), and suddenly the lead was down to four runs with a runner on base.

The Marlins were then forced to burn an inning from Mulvey to get out of the jam.

Mulvey’s appearance calmed down the Mariner excitement and they went down easily in the seventh after a Colin Williamson lead-off single.

Game Three sets up to be a classic and hopefully we will see both teams best baseball which we have not seen yet.

The Marlins appear to have an edge in the pitching with both of their top two pitchers having innings left, Miller (3) and Mulvey (5).

Whereas Chris Costa went all-in with his best Jon Vedder in game one and he only has two innings left.

The game might very likely come down to coaching strategy between bitter rivals Costa and Blumenshine.

MARLINS (11) – Arnold 2-1, Walsh 2-0, Zannino 3-1, Du 2-0, DiPietro 1-1, Mulvey 2-0, Miller 2-2, Branson 2-1, Bova 3-1, Bailey 3-0, Nohl 1-0, Whitmer 2-0, Champlin-Scharff 2-1. Totals 28-8

Pitching:

Miller 3 IP 3 R 3 H 1 K

Champlin-Scharff 2 IP 1 R 2H

Du 1IP 3 R 3 BB

Mulvey 2 IP 2H 1 K

MARINERS (7)- Williamson 3-1, Costa 3-0, Vedder 3-0, McGilvray 3-2, Gerardi 1-0, Fabiano 2-2, Jones 2-0, Peterossi 2-0, DeCourcey 1-0, Nowicki 1-1, D’Ambrosio 1-0, Diranian 2-0, Reid 2-1, Angelou 2-0. Totals 28-7

Pitching:

McGilvray 3 IP 5 R 3 H 3 K 5 BB

Gerardi 1 IP 3 R 1 H 1 K 3 BB

Williamson 3 IP 3 R 4 H 3 K

Doubles: DiPietro, McGilvray

WP- Miller

LP- McGilvray