The Arizona Diamondbacks faced the Florida Marlins for game two of the two game series. The afternoon game would begin with both teams scoreless after three innings of play. In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Marlins would begin scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning as a run would cross the plate on a couple of hit batsmen by Buckner. In the following inning Dan Uggla would score on a Jorge Cantu double on a fly ball to center field. In the meantime, the Diamondbacks’ bats would remain silent as the Marlins continued to score.

After Buckner would be removed form the game, Saul Rivera would come in for the D-backs and give up five earned runs in the inning, including two homers by the opposing team. Arizona would remain scoreless as the Marlins were able to score once more in the bottom of the eighth inning for a final score of eight to nothing. The struggling Diamondbacks head home to face the red hot San Francisco Giants as San Francisco will send Todd Wellemeyer to the mound to face Ian Kennedy.

The Arizona Diamondbacks looked to recover from a horrible drought of a week the week prior as they faced the Florida Marlins. The game was expected to be a tough one as the Marlins had come into the game in second place in the National League East. The Marlins, who have been known for their pitching would send Volstad to face Edwin Jackson. Jackson would come into the game with a one and five record, looking to make a statement for the Diamondbacks. Edwin Jackson did just that.

In the first inning of play, Connor Jackson would get on base with a double who would later be driven in by Stephen Drew on an RBI single. With one run scored in the first inning, The D-backs would be the first team on the board. In the second inning of play, Tony Abreu would drive in both Adam LaRoache and Chris Young to make the score three to nothing. Later that inning, John Hester would drive in Abreu for a total of three runs in that inning. The Diamondbacks would score once more in teh game on a Connor Jackson sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning. The sole Florida run would come in the bottom of the ninth inning as Cody Ross would have an RBI single.

The story of the game was pitcher Edwin Jackson as he played masterfully in eight innings of play. Jackson would only allow four hits and walk two batters. Jackson would exhibit command of the plate as he was able to strike out twelve batters in eight innings. Billy Buckner is scheduled to face Josh Johnson tomorrow afternoon at Sun Life Stadium.

Davis would pitch for four innings giving up two more runs before leaving the game. Davis would strike out seven while giving up five runs total. The lone Diamondbacks run came from Stephen Drew as he hit in Augie Ojeda in the seventh inning. The Diamondbacks would wrap up the first half of the season at home with a loss against the Marlins.

The Arizona Diamondbacks will be represented in the All-Star game on Tuesday by Dan Haren and Justin Upton. It is more than likely that the entire team will be at the game to see the festivities. The D-backs return from the All-Star break to face the St. Louis Cardinals in St. Louis, home of the 2009 All-Star Game.

Miguel Montero would get the scoring going in the second inning as he hits a solo home run off of Nolasco. The D-backs would score once again in the third inning to make the score 2-0. In the bottom of the fourth inning Gerardo Parra would score on an Alex Romero triple followed by an RBI single by Dan Haren. With Chad Tracy and Dan Haren on Nolasco would pitch to Felipe Lopez. Felipe Lopez would launch one into the pool for a three-run homer.

The Diamondbacks would score one more in the bottom of the eighth inning to round the game off at a score of 8 to nothing. Haren would strike out a total of ten batters while throwing a total of 117 pitches (77 strikes and 40 balls).  Jon Garland gets set as he is slotted to start against the Marlins’ Sean West for the Saturday matchup.

Upton would hit a two-run home run in the first inning to start the game and Parra, Young and Clark would contribute with RBIs of their own. At the end of seven innings the score would be 7-4 and the D-backs would still have a chance to win the game. The disastrous eight inning would see ten more runs from the Marlins as they rout the D-backs in their comeback to win the game.

Scott Schoeneweis would get the loss for Arizona as the team looks to regroup and battle the Marlins on Friday night where Dan Haren will pitch against Ricky Nolasco.

Catcher Chris Snyder hit his fourth home run of the season in the seventh inning bringing the D-backs to within one run after the seventh inning. Snyder now has 16 RBI’s, of which half have come on the current road trip.

In the top of the eighth the Justin Upton would reach base on a walk before Mark Reynolds hit his 12th homer of the season and knocked in his 23rd run.

Tony Pena allowed a lead-off double in the bottom of the eight, but was able to retire the next three batters to get out of the jam maintaining a 3-2 lead. Chad Qualls would strike out the side in the 9th for his 10th save. Clay Zavada made his first major league appearance of his career in the 7th inning and picked up his first win.

The win gave Arizona a 3-1 series win and was the third series this year the D-backs won.

Upton was not the only D-back player with two round-trippers. Third baseman Mark Reynolds use the first game of the double header to show his base running ability with his four stolen bases and in the second game he showed he can still take the ball yard doing so two times. Reynolds hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning which helped tie the game and send it into extra innings then hit what at the time appeared like it would be the game winning shot with a solo-homer in the 12th inning.

After Tony Pena pitched a good tenth inning he took the mound and started the 11th. Pena allowed runners to reach third and first with no outs and the D-backs turned to closer Chad Qualls in an unusual spot. The move paid off as Qualls would pitch them out of any trouble.

Chad Tracy and Chris Snyder would have two RBIs a piece as the duo would also hit a home run each in the loss to the Marlins. The game would begin in Florida’s favor with the score at 3-0 until the fifth inning. At the top of the fifth, the Diamondbacks would drive in three runs, only to be countered by four more Marlin runs in the bottom of the inning.

Arizona would put up a valiant effort as they tried to stage a comeback, falling short and losing the first game of the double header by a score of 8-6.

Mark Reynolds would tie a D-backs record in the game with four stolen bases, the most in one game by a Diamondback. Reynolds shares this record with former D-back Tony Womack.

Garland pitched seven strong innings allowing two runs to score, only one which was earned. After five shut-out innings Garland took to the mound in the sixth inning and allowed a solo-shot to Marlins slugger Hanley Ramirez. After another run scored thanks to Eric Byrnes missed grounder in left field Garland left the game trailing 2-0 despite a strong outing.

In the top of the seventh the offense would pick up for Garland starting with Mark Reynolds who lead off the inning with a solo-shot. Byrnes would reach base on a throwing error and would move to second on a short single to center field by catcher Chris Snyder. Augie Ojeda got the start at third today and wold move Byrnes and Snyder over to third and second base with a well executed bunt.

After lefty Miguel Montero was announced as a pinch-hitter for Garland Florida lifted starting pitcher Josh Johnson for Renyel Pinto. The lefty would drill Montero on the first pitch loading the bases with one out. Felipe Lopez hit a soft single to left field which would score Byrnes then hot rookie Gerardo Parra once again made the case for him to be Chris Youngs permanant replacement in center as he lined a double scoring two more runs. Justin Upton would finish the scoring with a sacrafice fly giving the D-backs a 5-1 lead they would not surrender.

Para now has seven hits and six RBI’s in his first four games while Chris Young has just 22 hits and eight RBI’s in 36 games. Chad Qualls struck out two in the ninth securing his ninth save and the second win in a row for Arizona. Today’s game was the first game for Arizona since Saturday as the last two games were rained out.

Logan Morrison of the Mesa Solar Sox hits for the cycle on Thursday against the Scottsdale Scorpions. Morrison who has had an excellent fall has become the second Marlins prospect to accomplish this feat. Teammate John Raynor hit for the cycle earlier this season against Surprise on October 10th. The Sox beat the Scorpions by a score of 11-6.

Morrison who represented the American Division in the Rising Stars AFL game last week is a baseball product of Northshore High School in Sidell, LA. Morrison is a 20 year-old star that skipped college to play in the major leagues. He was brought up to play in the AFL this year from the single “A” Greensboro Grasshoppers where he hit 24 homeruns with 86 runs batted in.

Logan Morrison enjoys playing in Arizona and is pleased to see how much further the ball travels without elements like humidity. He was excited about hitting for the cycle and his teammates saved the game ball for him. He enjoys the camaraderie and the competition at the Arizona Fall League and is very well-mannered for such a young rising star. There is no doubt that the future is bright for this Florida Marlins prospect.