Mike Ferguson

The Florida Marlins teams of the late-2000s failed to make the playoffs, but they were fun to watch—and pretty good. On this day 15 years ago, the Marlins used a pair of long balls in the ninth inning to rally past the Atlanta Braves, 6-4. Mike Rabelo had the game-tying blast before Hanley Ramirez put Florida ahead for good. After two strong innings of relief from Justin Miller to keep the Marlins in the game, Florida trailed 4-2 as it came to bat in the top of the ninth inning at Turner Field on June 4, 2008. Atlanta turned to Manny Ascosta, who would face five batters. Unfortunately for the Braves right-hander, four of them scored. Acosta didn’t fall behind the Marlin hitters, but he couldn’t put them away. Cody Ross singled on a 1-2 pitch to open the inning before Mike Rabelo, an unlikely power source, belted Acosta’s 1-1 offering into the right-centerfield stands for the game-tying two-run home run. With the score now 4-4, Florida made sure the bleeding didn’t stop. Alfredo Amezaga flied out to center, but Jorge Cantu followed with a line-drive double on an 0-1 pitch to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Ramirez was able to battle against Acosta by fouling multiple pitches off. On a 1-2 delivery, the Florida shortstop deposited one over the wall in left-centerfield for a two-run shot—his second home run of the day—to give the Marlins their first lead since the first inning. Acosta’s afternoon was over, but the damage was done. Kevin Gregg worked around a one-out walk in the ninth to pitch a scoreless frame and collect the save. Miller picked up the victory. While the dramatics came late, most of the offense in the contest came early. Mike Jacobs singled home the game’s first run in the top of the first, but Atlanta answered with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning. Against Florida starter Mark Hendrickson, the Braves used RBI singles from Yunel Escobar and Jeff Francoeur to take a 3-1 lead in the second inning. Ramirez led off the third inning with a solo homer off Atlanta starter Tom Glavine. The final Atlanta run came in the sixth on a single from Josh Anderson. Ramirez, who reached base five times and scored three runs, would enjoy stardom for the Marlins and came through in the clutch many times. Rabelo, on the other hand, homered just four times in three seasons in Major League Baseball. His final blast as a big leaguer came at an opportune time and on this day 15 years ago. Featured image by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Greg Briley didn’t have the longest or greatest Major League Baseball career. Many diehard Florida/Miami Marlins fans may not even know his name. Nonetheless, Briley does hold a distinction for this young Marlins franchise: he recorded the first multi-home run game in club history. It came on this day 30 years ago. Briley had just one home run for the season as the Florida Marlins got set to host the San Francisco Giants in a doubleheader on June 1, 1993. Before the start of the second game, Briley had already tripled his home run total for the year in a 7-3 victory. It was the Marlins who drew first blood with two runs in the third inning on an RBI double from Bret Barberie and an RBI single from Orestes Destrade. In the bottom of the fourth, Briley would double the Florida advantage. After Benito Santiago singled on the first pitch of the frame from San Francisco’s Bill Swift, Briley pulled Swift’s pitch over the right-field wall to push the advantage to 4-0. The Giants cut the deficit to one against Florida starter Chris Hammond with three runs in the fifth inning. Will Clark’s RBI double was followed by RBI singles from Matt Williams and Mark Carreon. Hammond, Trevor Hoffman and Bryan Harvey proceeded to keep San Francisco off the scoreboard for the remainder of the contest. Florida added an insurance run in the seventh on an RBI single from Dave Magadan to increase its lead to 5-3. In the eighth, Briley made Marlins history by going the other way for a solo homer off Dave Burba. Chuck Carr would cap the scoring with an RBI single to right to score Walt Weiss. Barberie, Destrade and Santiago also finished with two hits in the victory, but the story of the game was Briley. In what would also be the franchise’s first doubleheader, the Marlins dropped the second game, 4-3. Briley went 0-for-1 with a strikeout in a pinch-hitting appearance in that one. In six years in the big leagues, including his first five with the Seattle Mariners, Briley hit just 29 career home runs. His final two came in the same game and made Marlins history on this day three decades ago. Featured image courtesy of Upper Deck Trading Cards

Pitcher Dontrelle Willis left South Florida as the Florida Marlins’ all-time leader in wins, but pitching wasn’t the only thing that Willis could do. Over his five years with the club, Willis also hit eight home runs, the most by a pitcher in team history. On this day 20 years ago, Willis went yard for the first time. His solo shot in the fifth inning put the Marlins ahead for good in a 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Willis was making his fifth career start as Florida and Cincinnati met at Pro Player Stadium on May 31, 2003. Willis shined on the mound, tossing seven innings, but it was his own swing that put him in line for the win. With the contest even 1-1, Willis led off the bottom of the fifth inning. On the first pitch of the inning from Danny Graves, Willis took a letter-high fastball and blasted it into the right-centerfield stands to give the Marlins a 2-1 lead. Willis’ offense seemed to add firepower to his pitching. He allowed just a walk over his final three innings of work. For the night, he yielded just a run on five hits and three walks while striking out eight in a stellar outing. The Marlins would add a run in the seventh as Juan Pierre squeezed home Alex Gonzalez. Cincinnati answered with a run in the eighth off Tim Spooneybarger, but Braden Looper shut the door with three groundouts in the ninth to earn the save. Cincinnati’s only run of the night off Willis came in the top of the second as Sean Casey singled home Aaron Boone. Florida drew even in the third on an RBI single from Ivan Rodriguez. Rodriguez (2) and Juan Encarnacion (3) combined for five of the nine hits for the Marlins. In five years with the Marlins, Willis batted .234. His career wins record was later broken by Ricky Nolasco, but with the National League switching to a designated hitter, it’s unlikely his franchise record for home runs by a pitcher ever will be. He first went deep on this day two decades ago. Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images