The floundering Arizona Diamondbacks actually won last night, beating the Florida Marlins 5-1 in a game most memorable for a bizarre play by usually stellar shortstop Hanley Ramirez.
The play happened in the second inning of the game in Miami, and it was a doozy:
The D-Backs' Tony Abreu dinked a ball to short left over Ramirez's head with two runners on base. Ramirez chugged after it, but the ball dropped in front of him.
Somehow, Ramirez then accidentally kicked the ball down the line about 100 feet (the left fielder was of no help as he was charging in and had no momentum).
Trouble was, he jogged after the thing (he said later that fouling a pitch off his shin in the first inning had kept him from moving any quicker) and both runners scored easily. Abreu ended up on third after the error.
Ramirez is a two-time All-Star who led the National League in hitting last year.
But that mattered not to Marlins manager Ferdi Gonzalez, who yanked his superstar (the owner of a $70 million, six-year contract that he signed in 2008).
Edwin Jackson threw great for the D-Backs, winning his first game since April 11 in eight shutout innings.
Knowing of the Snakes' horrific bullpen woes, we feared that the 5-0 lead he had when sitting down for the night after the eighth might not be enough.
But relief pitcher Aaron Heilman gave up "just" one run in ninth, and Arizona captured a much-needed win.
Today's game against Florida is already under way, and is on Channel 34 and KTAR-620.
