August 14, 200323 yr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted on Thu, Aug. 14, 2003 Another win in reserve Bench delivers winning homer for the second night in a row By CLARK SPENCER cspencer@herald.com As Mike Mordecai circled the bases with his right fist pointed in the air, his teammates inside the Marlins dugout lost control. Someone stepped on Carl Pavano's foot, leaving a red welt. Kevin Olsen was so excited that he hit Juan Pierre over his head for no apparent reason. Everyone was racing out to the plate to greet Mordecai, taking the same route as the night before when another unlikely hero, third-string catcher Ram?n Castro, struck the deciding blow in the 13th inning. ''I might just sleep in my uniform tonight,'' Pierre said after Mordecai -- whose first home run in nearly two years defeated the Braves in the 12th inning on July 23 -- waved his miracle wand again at Pro Player Stadium in the Marlins' 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The seldom-used utility infielder's home run off Victor Alvarez came on a 2-2 changeup and brought a sudden halt to the 11th-inning thriller. With it, the Marlins maintained their half-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League wild-card race. ''You can't win the wild-card right now,'' Mordecai said in the party atmosphere that was the Marlins clubhouse. ``But you can lose it.'' Not if the Marlins keep finding unsuspecting heroes night after night, game after game. Castro, who had 39 at-bats this season before he got a chance to play Tuesday after Iv?n Rodr?guez was thrown out of the game, delivered a walk-off home run to defeat the Dodgers. It was Mordecai's turn Wednesday. Sent in to pinch-run for Mike Lowell in the ninth inning, Mordecai stepped to the plate for the first time in the 11th. It was the same sequence -- that is, pinch-running for Lowell -- that preceded his walk-off home run last month at Turner Field. Surely lightning couldn't strike twice. Only it did. When Mordecai stepped into the box to face Alv?rez with two out, his intention was to bunt -- anything to reach base. But he said he ditched that plan when the left-hander threw a curveball. After the count went to 0-2, Mordecai said he started looking for a changeup. He got it on Alv?rez's fifth pitch. The result: a 377-foot home run that brought a crowd of 12,323 to its feet and sent the Marlins dugout into a frenzy. ''If he had thrown me a fastball, I don't know if I would have even gotten any wood on it,'' Mordecai said. When the ball started carrying to deep left, Mordecai took off in an all-out sprint thinking it might strike the scoreboard clock. ''If it took some paint with it, so be it,'' said Mordecai, who -- along with Castro -- has the fewest hits (12) of any Marlins position player. His home run was no paint-scraper. In fact, it was the seventh walk-off home run this season for the Marlins. But it might have been the most shocking of all, considering it was Mordecai's second such blast. ''Everybody was just screaming,'' Pierre said of the scene inside the dugout. ``I just looked at the video and Kevin Olsen was pounding on my head, and Olsen doesn't get excited about anything.'' Rookie Dontrelle Willis was plenty excited, yelling out ''Mordi the Magnificent'' over and over while others called out for ``Big Mo.'' ''Dontrelle needs a little more dirt in his spikes before he can start giving out names in here,'' Mordecai said of the 21-year-old rookie. At 35, Mordecai is the oldest player on the Marlins. At 5-10, he is also the shortest position player. It would never have come down to Mordecai had the Marlins held on to their 1-0 lead, which they took into the ninth. But Ugueth Urbina, brought in to close it out, gave up the tying run on Paul Lo Duca's one-out double. No matter. ''These guys are resilient,'' manager Jack McKeon said. ``You may be down, you may be out, but we don't go down for the count.'' Not Tuesday. Not Wednesday. That's why Pierre said he might fall asleep in his dirty uniform and wear it for this afternoon's game. Lightning might just strike a third time.
August 14, 200323 yr damn watta game last night. i was pissed off because i was home for tuesdays game so i made sure i went to wednesday's game. and i got a hell of a game. it was really cool when loria went crazy and started throwing all of the balls into the crowd. i caught 3. but then a little kid came up to me and said, " sir can i please have a ball? please?" so i gave him one. i left with two. lol watta game
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