Marlins win home/season-opener on Ramirez mash and Bonifacio’s sensational stats

MIAMI — Emilio Bonifacio went 4-for-5 with three stolen bases, four runs scored and an inside-the-park home run, and the Marlins put up 12 hits to back Ricky Nolasco in a 12-6 win in front of 34,323 on Monday afternoon at Dolphin Stadium.

Bonifacio, a natural second baseman expected to play third and bat leadoff this season, came up with the Marlins leading 6-2 in the fourth inning and hit a line drive just over the outstretched glove of Nationals center fielder Lastings Milledge. As Milledge got up to retrieve the ball, the speedy 23-year-old switch-hitter was racing around the basepaths and easily notched his first Major League home run and 14th inside-the-park homer in franchise history.

Nolasco, coming off a season in which he went 15-8 with a 3.52 ERA, got the win despite giving up five runs — four earned — in six innings. The 26-year-old right-hander retired nine of his first 10 batters, but gave up RBI doubles to Austin Kearns and Adam Dunn in the fourth, and a three-run homer to Dunn in the sixth.

But any hopes of Washington making a furious comeback were erased with one mighty swing from Hanley Ramirez, who came up with nobody out and the bases loaded in the sixth, took a 1-1 pitch from Steven Shell and blasted it way over the left-field scoreboard to give the Marlins a seven-run lead they wouldn’t give back. It was Ramirez’s first career grand slam.

The Marlins got on the board in the first inning off Nationals starter John Lannan with an RBI double by John Baker and an RBI groundout by Jorge Cantu two batters later. In the third, Florida took a 6-0 lead off a bloop double by Ramirez, a two-run homer by Cantu and a solo shot by Jeremy Hermida two batters later.

*****from mlb.com*****

Jeremy Hermida(former Greensboro Bat: LF 4 at bats, 1 run, 1 hit, 1 RBI….Solo Home Run

Brett Carroll(former Greensboro Grasshopper): PH-LF 2 at bats, 1 run, 1 hit