Tucker Wins Debut

Highly touted prospect Ryan Tucker made his big league debut on Sunday for the Marlins and came away a winner as the fish beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-2. The win was the Marlins second in a row and kept them 3.5 games behind the streaking first place Phillies. Hanley Ramirez hit 2 home runs in the game and the Marlins as a team amassed 13 hits.

Tucker had been dominating the Southern League in AA as the Marlins’ minor league pitcher of the year so far. With Burke Badenhop pitching in relief on Saturday, Tucker was called upon to make the start for the Marlins. The rookie surrendered only 2 hits in 5 innings of work while striking out six and allowing 1 lone earned run. Tucker did battle with control issues as he allowed 5 walks and hit one batter. He went onto to grab the victory in his first ever big league start and is in line to pitch next against the Tampa Bay Rays. Joe Nelson was the first pitcher out of the bullpen on Sunday and threw two scoreless innings of relief as he continued to be an asset out of the pen. Justin Miller threw for 1 inning and allowed 1 earned run. Kevin Gregg worked the 9th in a non save situation and did so in perfect style while striking out 2.

Four Marlins had multi hit games in this rout of Cincinnati.    Dan Uggla had a 2-3 day with both hits being doubles as he picked up 3 runs batted in.   Jorge Cantu continued his hot hitting with a 2-4 day including a double.   Cantu is 8-14 in the series against the Reds thus far.   Jeremy Hermida had 2 hits of his own as well.   The biggest bat of the game though was Hanley Ramirez  who went 3-5 with 2 home runs and 4 runs batted in.    Ramirez raised his average back up to .300 with his big game.

On Monday, the series will conclude as the fish send Mark Hendrickson to the mound to take on potential Rookie of the Year Edinson Volquez of the Reds.