On Saturday afternoon the Florida Marlins defeated the Florida Marlins by a score of 9-5. The Fish jumped on Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick early and often; Kendrick would wind up going 4.1 innings, giving up 10 hits and 7 earned runs.

“It does resemble a softball game a little bit,” said Cody Ross. “We’ve got some guys going up there taking healthy hacks, and the Phillies are the same way. The game is never over.”

Though Florida would wind up on top, the Phillies had no offensive shortcomings. Pat Burrell would homer twice, and Jimmy Rollins, Pedro Feliz, Chris Coste would throw in RBI’s of their own. Florida’s bullpen was able to stifle the Phillie bats; Matt Lindstrom, Renyel Pinto, Doug Waechter and Kevin Gregg combined for four innings of one run baseball.

“I was trying to get everybody on the edge of their seats,” Kevin Gregg said after the game. “What counts is we shook hands afterward.”

In the 9th inning, Gregg allowed three hitters to get on base, none of which scored.

“They swing early and often a lot,” Kendrick said. “Obviously they wanted the fastballs, so I tried to mix it up. I just didn’t have my stuff today.”

In the NL East division, the Marlins are now just a half game behind the New York Mets, and 1.5 games behind the first place Phillies. After the game, Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel acknowledged the play of the Marlins.

“The Marlins are aggressive,” Manuel said. “They hunt fastballs to hit. And when you make a mistake, they hit it.”