MIAMI (AP) – A gray cat went scrambling for cover in the Marlins Park outfield midway through Tuesday night’s game, and no wonder, given the barrage off Marcell Ozuna’s bat.
Ozuna homered twice and had a career-high six RBIs to help Miami win its home opener against the Atlanta Braves, 8-4.
Announced attendance was 36,519, and that didn’t include a cat that ran onto the field midway through the game. It scurried along the outfield warning track, ran away from right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, crawled up the center field wall and then appeared to get stuck in the animatronic home run sculpture.
Marlins president David Samson said if Ozuna had hit a third homer, the sculpture would not have been activated for fear of harming the cat.
Ozuna hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning, a three-run homer in the third and a two-run homer in the fifth, doubling his season RBI total and hiking his average to .423. The two-homer game was the second of his career.