Jose Fernandez‘s long awaited season debut finally happened today as the Miami Marlins faced the San Francisco Giants. As all the attention was focused on Fernandez, he was not the only pitcher making his season debut, Giants starter Matt Cain was also making his season debut giving this game a special meaning to both teams. Both Cain and Fernandez were coming back from Tommy John surgeries.
After an impressive rookie season in which Fernandez went 12-6 with a 2.19 ERA and ran away with the Rookie of the Year award he had to undergo surgery in 2014 after just making 8 starts in the season. For Matt Cain it was a different story, after having very strong back-to-back seasons in 2011 and 2012, years in which he was an all-star, Cain went on to struggle in 2013 and in his shortened season in 2014. In both years combined he had a 10-17 record with a 4.06 ERA.
Marlins Park was roaring to see Jose Fernandez as some of his family members were in the stands as well, but with all the excitement and high expectations, Fernandez got off to a shaky start and struggled a bit in the first inning giving up 2 runs on a sacrifice fly by Buster Posey and an RBI single by Brandon Belt.
Jose Fernandez was hitting the mid 90’s on the radar gun consistently and his breaking ball was effective especially for being his first game back from Tommy John surgery.
After giving up a home run to Giants lead off hitter Gregor Blanco in the top of the 5th inning, the Marlins went into the bottom of the inning down in the scoreboard 3-1.
But the Marlins had a rally left in them. It was in the bottom of the 5th when Jose Fernandez stepped to the batter’s box and launched a solo home run off of Matt Cain in the left field bleachers cutting the deficit to 3-2. Later in the inning, after a walk to Christian Yelich and a single by Adeiny Hechavarria, Justin Bour came up and belted his 9th home run of the season giving the Marlins a 5-3 lead.
The Marlins were able to hold on to the lead and win the game by a final score of 5-4. Fernandez finished the night with the win while his final line was: 6 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, and 6 SO.
Meanwhile Matt Cain got the loss and his final line was: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, and 2 SO.
With what has become a very tough season for the Miami Marlins and after the loss of their slugger Giancarlo Stanton to injury, it was great to see Fernandez come back and give Marlin fans a reason to cheer about.