Moose Alert: Excruciating Under Loss in Extra Innings in Miami

The Highlights

• The Marlins and Giants met in Miami today with a total of 8.
• With the Giants leading 3-2 in the ninth inning, Hunter Strickland blew the save — as the Marlins tied the game on an unearned run.
• After Miami had a number of chances for a walk-off win, the Giants scored three runs in the 16th inning to take a 6-3 lead — ruining the afternoon for under 8 bettors.

Godspeed if you spent your afternoon sweating out the under 8 between the San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins.

It didn't look good early, as the Giants took a 3-0 lead in the second inning — but then things settled down. San Fran's offense went cold, while the Marlins slowly chipped away at the lead.

Miami added a single run in the fifth and seventh to cut the deficit to 3-2. That score held until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Hunter Strickland came in for the save.

Starlin Castro reached on a Joe Panik error to start the inning. Man on second and no outs. Uh oh. Time to panic a little for under backers. But they still would have a shot even if Miami tied it up — as the under 8 still cashes with a 4-3 win by either team.

JT Riddle then came up to sacrifice bunt in order to get Castro to second, which he did successfully.

With a man on third and one out, Strickland now had a strikeout on his mind. Well, after getting to a 3-2 count, Lewis Brinson fouled off three straight pitches before hitting a sacrifice fly to tie the game 3-3 — on an unearned run. The Marlins wouldn't win in walk-off fashion, so we headed to extras.

After no action in the 10th inning, the Giants had something brewing in the top of the 11th — but the Marlins cut down Brandon Crawford at the plate to end the threat. Probably a good thing for under bettors, who ultimately wanted a 4-3 Miami walk-off win.

Well, they got that shot in the 13th with the bases loaded, but the Marlins sent up pitcher Elieser Hernandez to hit. Hernandez would ground out in anti-climactic fashion and we played on.

The Marlins had another chance to send under 8 backers home happy in the bottom of the 15th inning — with men on first and third with only one out, but Justin Bour would ground into an inning-ending double play. On to the 16th!

It finally then went all wrong for the under, as the Giants led off the inning with two singles and a walk to load the bases with nobody out. Pablo Sandoval then singled to drive in two to give the G-men a 5-3 lead.

Gorkys Hernandez put the final nail in the coffin with a sacrifice fly to give San Fran a 6-3 lead. The Giants scored three runs in that inning after not scoring a run in the previous 13 innings. And that is where the game would end.

To think it all started with a game-tying unearned run in the bottom of the ninth. Watching that under lose in 16 innings is no way to spend an afternoon. Betting on baseball can be as brutal as wagering on any sport.