Julio Teheran endured his worst start of the season and A.J. Ramos suffered his first blown save in nearly 10 months. It was only fitting that the Marlins claimed Friday night’s 7-5, 12-inning win over the Braves courtesy of the pinch-hit double Jose Fernandez hit off the pitcher he might have opposed in Saturday’s start.

Fernandez drilled his game-winning, two-run double to the left-center field gap off Casey Kelly, who had been considered Atlanta’s potential starter for Saturday until he was forced to enter this game in the eleventh inning.
“That’s always been like a dream, to play in the outfield or to pinch-hit like that,” Fernandez said. “But when it actually happened, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m actually doing this.’ My heart rate started going faster. The main goal was trying to get a ground-ball hit somewhere, so we could get a run and go home.”
Fernandez is just the second Marlins pitcher to record a game-winning pinch-hit. The first was Dennis Cook on Aug. 1, 1997, a single in the 12th inning against the Braves.
With the unexpected offensive contribution their ace provided approximately 16 hours before his next start, the Marlins won for just the third time in 10 opportunities against the Braves.
Tyler Flowers began the ninth with a game-tying solo homer off Ramos, who had successfully converted each of his previous 24 save opportunities this year and a franchise-best 33 straight dating back to Sept. 4. The blown save came after Teheran allowed a season-high 11 hits and five earned runs over 6 2/3 innings.
“It was eventful,” Flowers said. “I thought we battled well. Julio wasn’t real sharp early on. He was able to settle in and go a lot deeper in the game than most people expected. I thought that was a positive after a tough [first] inning there, followed by another tough inning. I think there were a lot of positives to take away. We just couldn’t come up with the big hit at the end.”
Marcell Ozuna is having an All-Star-worthy first half that has been filled with plenty of career bests. With four hits, the 25-year-old center fielder matched his career high for hits in a game, now done six times, with the most recent before Friday on June 9 at Minnesota. Ozuna connected on a two-run homer in the first inning, and in the seventh, his RBI single to center gave the Marlins their 5-4 lead.
Teheran entered with a 23-inning scoreless streak and he had not allowed more than six hits in any of his previous 16 starts. But the All-Star candidate surrendered three first-inning hits, including Derek Dietrich’s leadoff homer and the two-run homer Ozuna hit while seeing nothing but four sliders during the plate appearance. Teheran struck out the first two batters he faced in the seventh and then ended his 104-pitch night by allowing a Martin Prado single and Christian Yelich’s game-tying double. Ozuna followed by greeting Chris Withrow with a go-ahead single.
“I kind of felt slow in the first inning,” Teheran said. “I didn’t make those pitches, but I tried to keep my mind in the game and tried to give my team a chance to win. That’s what I did until the seventh when I started missing a little bit. I don’t think I missed, but I didn’t make the right pitches.”
This was supposed to be a matchup we could have seen on Saturday afternoon. In the 12th inning, Kelly, who was lined up to face Fernandez on the mound, instead found himself pitching to Miami’s ace, who pinch-hit with runners on first and second because Miami was out of position players. Fernandez ripped his two-run double into the gap, giving the Marlins a two-run lead. It was the first time in his career that Fernandez has pinch-hit, and he came through in a big way.
“It’s one of those things you’re never comfortable with,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You don’t ever think anybody is going to get hurt. You take some precautions to make sure he’s getting loose. But the risk reward is not really great for you.”
Freddie Freeman began the 10th inning with what appeared to be a routine flyball until shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria collided with Yelich in shallow left field. Adonis Garcia followed with a strikeout and A.J. Pierzynski flew out after Nick Markakis was intentionally walked. Flowers was hit by Nick Wittgren’s first-pitch slider to load the bases with two outs, but Erick Aybar flew out to end the threat.
“We just couldn’t get it done,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We made a good run at it and gave ourselves a chance, put ourselves in position, and it just didn’t happen tonight.”
Before heading to Fort Bragg later in the night for Sunday’s series finale, the Marlins complete their-three-game stint at Turner Field at 3:10 p.m. CT on Saturday. Jose Fernandez (10-3, 2.28 ERA) makes his 16th start. The right-hander is 4-1 with a 2.15 ERA in seven career starts against Atlanta.
With Kelly being used on Friday, the Braves will call Lucas Harrell up from Triple-A Gwinnett to start Saturday’s game. Harrell has produced a 2.81 ERA in nine appearances (five starts) for Triple-A Gwinnett. Bud Norris was scheduled to make this start before being traded to the Dodgers on Thursday.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast beginning with the pregame show at 2 PM.

The Oklahoma City Dodgers got a dynamite performance from starter Jharel Cotton in a 9-6 win over the Nashville Sounds in front of 8,538 fans Friday night at First Tennessee Park.

Cotton allowed two unearned runs on just two hits in six innings. The right-hander struck out nine batters on the way to his seventh win of the season.

Oklahoma City’s Rob Segedin started his 4-for-4 night with a base hit to right-center to start the second inning. He moved to third on O’Koyea Dickson’s double and then scored on a groundout by Zach Walters.

The Sounds (47-35) came back in the bottom of the third with the help of a pair of errors committed by Dodgers’ second baseman Austin Barnes. Arismendy Alcantara started Nashville’s scoring with a run-scoring single to even the game at 1-1.

Two batters later, Max Muncy hit a groundball to Barnes who bobbled, allowing Muncy to reach safely and Bruce Maxwell to score with the go-ahead run.

It stayed 2-1 until the sixth as Cotton and Sounds’ starter Nick Tepesch exchanged zeroes in the middle innings.

Barnes made up for his miscues on defense when he launched a grand slam off Tepesch in the top of the sixth. The slam gave the Dodgers (44-36) a 5-2 lead and came after the first three batters reached safely.

After four in the sixth, Oklahoma City plated another four in the seventh to open up a 9-2 lead. Barnes added another RBI with a base hit to right field, and Dickson drove in a pair of runs with a double to the gap in left-center.

The Sounds made noise late when Matt McBride launched a three-run homer to the left field seats to cut the deficit to 9-5 in the seventh.

Matt Olson started the ninth with a double and quickly moved to third on McBride’s second hit of the night. Maxwell made it a 9-6 game with a sacrifice fly. Alcantara sent a single to right to bring the tying run to the plate but Dodgers’ reliever Matt West retired Chad Pinder and Max Muncy on back-to-back pitches to shut down the rally.

Tepesch allowed five runs on seven hits in six innings and was hit with the loss in his Sounds debut.

Game three of the four-game set is scheduled for Saturday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Jesse Hahn (1-3, 3.60) starts for Nashville against right-hander Trevor Oaks (0-0, 9.00) for Oklahoma City. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Ryon Healy of the Nashville Sounds

Nashville Sounds infielder Ryon Healy was named to the Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game today as announced by Major League Baseball.
Now in its 18th year, the All-Star Futures Game features top Minor League prospects competing as part of All-Star Sunday at Petco Park in San Diego. Healy will be part of the U.S. Team taking on the World Team.
Healy will be teammates with former Vanderbilt Baseball standouts Dansby Swanson and Carson Fulmer.
In 39 games with the Sounds, he’s hitting .346 (53-for-153) with 31 runs scored, 25 RBI, 15 doubles, 5 home runs and 18 multi-hit games. Since being promoted from Double-A Midland on May 17, he’s among PCL leaders in hits (T-2nd), doubles (3rd), total bases (85, T-3rd), extra-base hits (21, T-5th), runs (T-6th) and average (8th).
Healy’s hometown of West Hills, California is located 150 miles northwest of San Diego. A preview of the event, along with complete rosters from Major League Baseball is listed below and attached.

Rosters for the 2016 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, which will be played at 7:00 p.m. (ET)/4:00 p.m. (PT) on
Sunday, July 10th at Petco Park in San Diego, were announced by Major League Baseball earlier today on MLB
Network’s “The Rundown.”
Major League Baseball, in conjunction with MLB.com, Baseball America and the 30
Major League Clubs, selected the 25 players currently on each team. Each Major League
organization is represented and players from all full-season Minor Leagues were eligible to be
selected. Complete Futures Game rosters, prospect analysis and rankings can be found at
MLB.com/pipeline.
The teams feature 15 former first round draft picks (14 on U.S. Team and one on World Team), one player
picked in Compensation Round A (U.S. Team) and four second round picks (all U.S.). Among the 15 first round
picks, seven were selected in the 2015 Draft, one in the 2014 Draft and seven in the 2013 Draft.
The World Team features players from 11 different countries and territories outside the 50 United States.
The Dominican Republic is represented by 13 players, followed by Canada (2) and Venezuela (2). Colombia, Cuba,
Lithuania, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Taiwan and the U.S. Virgin Islands are each represented by one player
on the World Team.
The SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game will last nine innings, and in the event of a tie, a 10th inning will be
played. The game will not go longer than 10 innings, regardless of the score. Players and coaches will be outfitted
in special SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game caps and jerseys.

The SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, which is now in its 18th year, features the top Minor League prospects
competing in a contest as part of All-Star Sunday. The U.S. Team, which has won each of the last six games, leads
the all-time series, 11-6. As part of its live All-Star Week programming, MLB Network will exclusively televise and
MLB.com will live stream the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at 4:00 p.m. (PT)/7:00 p.m. (ET), with Matt
Vasgersian, Mark DeRosa, Heidi Watney and MLB.com prospect expert Jonathan Mayo on the call live from Petco
Park.
SiriusXM, the Official Satellite Radio Partner of Major League Baseball, will provide live play-by-play
coverage of the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game on MLB Network Radio (XM channel 89; Sirius channel 209) in
addition to SiriusXM’s other comprehensive live coverage from San Diego. The game will also be available to
SiriusXM subscribers on the SiriusXM app and online at SiriusXM.com. SiriusXM’s broadcast team will feature Mike
Ferrin, Jim Duquette, Jim Bowden and Grant Paulsen. All-Star Sunday is the first of three days of All-Star events at
Petco Park, culminating with the 87th All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 12th.
Tickets are available for purchase for the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game and the All-Star Legends and
Celebrity Softball Game by visiting www.allstargame.com or visiting the Padres box office at Petco Park.
MLB All-Star Week includes the MLB All-Star Game presented by MasterCard at Petco Park (July 12th),
Gatorade All-Star Workout Day featuring the T-Mobile Home Run Derby (July 11th), All-Star Sunday featuring the
SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game and All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game (July 10th), All-Star FanFest at the
San Diego Convention Center (July 8th-12th), plus a lineup of additional events taking place around the city. The
87th Midsummer Classic will be televised nationally by FOX Sports; in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS; and
worldwide by partners in more than 160 countries. ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide exclusive
national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB Network, MLB.com and Sirius XM also will provide
comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information about MLB All-Star Week and to purchase tickets,
please visit AllStarGame.com and follow @AllStarGame on social media.

2016 AllStar Futures Game(Click to enlarge)

Nashville Sounds infielder Chad Pinder and left-handed pitcher Patrick Schuster have been named to the Pacific Coast League All-Star Team as announced by the league on Thursday.  Both players were selected as reserves.

The 2016 Triple-A All-Star Game is Wednesday, July 13 at 6:05 CT. The Pacific Coast League All-Stars take on the International All-Stars at BB&T Ballpark in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game will be carried live on the MLB Network.

Pinder, 24, is hitting .266 (75-for-282) with 48 runs scored, 37 RBI, 17 doubles, 9 home runs, 2 triples and 14 walks in 71 games. It’s the second career All-Star Game appearance for the Virginia native who was named a mid-season Texas League All-Star in 2015.

Drafted by the Oakland Athletics with the 71st overall pick in the 2013 MLB First-Year Player Draft, Pinder is in his first season at the Triple-A level after being named the Texas League Player of the Year in 2015. He leads Nashville with 22 multi-hit games and is second on the team with 10 multi-RBI games.

He has supplied the Sounds with two walk-off hits and owns the second longest hitting streak of any Sounds player this season at 12 games from May 22-June 4.

Schuster, 25, is 1-0 with a 1.36 ERA and 5 saves in 27 games. In 33 innings, the reliever has allowed 25 hits and 12 walks while racking up 36 strikeouts. It’s the first All-Star Game for Schuster in his career.

The Florida native is a member of the PCL’s best pitching staff with a 3.25 ERA through 80 games.

Schuster is allowing opponents to hit .205 (25-for-122) against him. With runners in scoring position, batters are hitting just .103 (4-for-39) against him.

Signed by the Oakland Athletics as a minor-league free agent in November 2015, Schuster is in his second season at the Triple-A level.

The complete Pacific Coast League All-Star Game roster is pictured below. The International League All-Stars can be found at www.milb.com.

The 2016 season is the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.

2016 PCL AllStar Team (Click to enlarge)