Pierre wakes up sleeping Marlins

June 25, 200521 yr

Let's hope it is so.

I particularly like Todd Jones' comment at the end.

Pierre wakes up sleeping Marlins

By Joe Capozzi

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, June 25, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG ? There were more than a few yawns and sets of red eyes Friday night in the Marlins' dugout at Tropicana Field.

After all, the team didn't arrive in St. Petersburg until after 7 a.m. because mechanical problems forced the players to sit on their charter plane in Atlanta for nearly six hours before finally leaving on their 50-minute flight.

But center fielder Juan Pierre said he was not one of the tired and cranky.

"I slept great," he said after Florida's 7-4 victory against the Devil Rays. "I got to the hotel and slept until 3:15. Then I woke up frightened. I thought it was like 7 o'clock. (The room) was dark. I was panicking."

Pierre made it to the ballpark in plenty of time for the 7:15 p.m. start. And when the Marlins needed him most, he was wide awake.

With the bases loaded and Florida trailing 4-3 in the eighth inning, Pierre had no trouble finding the energy to leg out a three-run triple.

"It's great for anybody to get a triple like that but especially him," manager Jack McKeon said. "The way he has struggled of late, to get a key blow like that has got to be a tremendous lift for him."

Marlins starter Al Leiter walked four and allowed four runs in 6 1/3 innings, but pitched well considering he'd only slept 3 hours. It was the first time this season that Leiter, who pitched six innings in a win against the Angels on Sunday, threw at least six innings in consecutive starts. He came into the game averaging 4.83 innings per start.

He was spotted a 3-0 lead in the third inning when Carlos Delgado doubled to score Luis Castillo and Miguel Cabrera. Delgado scored on Mike Lowell's double.

Leiter cruised through the first three innings, but opened the fourth inning by walking Carlo Crawford and Julio Lugo. He fell behind Jorge Canto 2-0 before Cantu drove the next pitch over the center-field wall for a three-run homer.

Leiter settled down the next two innings before opening the seventh by walking Eduardo Perez. Guillermo Mota came on and got Damon Hollins to pop out to first base, but Tampa Bay's Alex Gonzalez doubled to center field to put the Devil Rays ahead 4-3.

The Marlins finally got to starter Doug Waechter, then the bullpen in the eighth.

After Paul Lo Duca doubled with one out and Jeff Conine and Alex Gonzalez drew two-out walks to set the stage for Pierre, who took a.246 batting average into the game and was batting.175 with runners in scoring position when he stepped to the plate.

Pierre drove a fastball from reliever Lance Carter high and deep over the head of center fielder Damon Hollins, who'd robbed Lo Duca in the fifth inning with a spectacular catch.

"When I hit it," Pierre said, "I was like, 'Man, please don't go back and catch this one.' He just had made a spectacular catch against Dukie and just the way my luck has been going, he would have ran that one down. But it fell and it felt good to be a part of a big inning."

Pierre dived into third base and bounced up slapping his hands together. He wound up scoring to make it 7-4.

"It was really big for J.P.," said reliever Todd Jones, who earned 199th career save. "I think our hitters are feeling so much anxiety because everyone is saying were having a hard time scoring runs. We're all in this together."

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