FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Brian Snitker will never forget Sunday night — for reasons that had nothing to do with the latest loss for his last-place Atlanta Braves.
The Miami Marlins beat the Braves 5-2 in a game played in a temporary ballpark on a U.S. Army post.
"The bad part is, we lost the game," the interim Atlanta manager said. "The good part is, it's something I'll never forget the rest of my life."
This game was played at a ballpark built from scratch in less than four months at the sprawling Army post that's home to 55,000 service members, including the famed paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division.
They came to cheer, and chop, the local favorite Braves — who couldn't get anything going against Marlins starter Adam Conley.
Conley (5-5) allowed four hits in the Marlins' best outing by a starter in a week. In Miami's previous five games, each starter allowed at least four earned runs and none finished the sixth.
"I know, for me, this has been my favorite place to ever pitch in my life," Conley said. "This is the most memorable place I've ever pitched. ... An absolute honor that it falls on my day and that I get to start here."
J.T. Realmuto homered and drove in two runs and Christian Yelich also finished with two RBIs. He and Realmuto had run-scoring singles during a two-run fifth.
Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Matt Wisler throws the first pitch during the first inning on July 3, 2016, against the Miami Marlins at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Photo Credit: Gerry Broome/AP
Martin Prado added an RBI single in the seventh to help the wild card-contending Marlins earn a split of the four-game series and win the first regular-season game — in any sport — held at an active military installation.
Matt Wisler (3-8) had six strikeouts for the Braves, giving him 15 in his last two starts, but he allowed three earned runs in six-plus innings.
"It was just, two strikes, he couldn't put a guy away," Snitker said.
Realmuto led off the ninth with a towering homer to center field off reliever Tyrell Jenkins to put the Marlins up 5-0.
They pulled within 1½ games of the NL's second wild card and improved to 4-8 against the last-place Braves — a mark that's still their worst against an NL East opponent. Two of those wins belong to Conley, who threw eight scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over Atlanta on June 22 in Miami.
The Braves scored two runs in the ninth off A.J. Ramos on Erick Aybar's RBI double and A.J. Pierzynski's sacrifice fly before Ramos struck out Jace Peterson to end it.
Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves players line the base paths on July 3, 2016, during the national anthem at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Photo Credit: Gerry Broome/AP
In a joint effort from Major League Baseball and the players' association, an overgrown golf course was cleared out and transformed into a major league-caliber field surrounded by temporary stands that were packed by 12,582 service members.
Looking rather comfortable in such a setting, Wisler breezed through the first four innings before running into trouble in the fifth.
Adeiny Hechavarria led off with a triple off the fence in center, then scored two batters later on Realmuto's single to right that fell in front of a diving Nick Markakis. Prado then singled to center and Yelich followed with his RBI single to right that scored Realmuto.
Prado made it 3-0 with his RBI single in the seventh and Yelich added a run-scoring sacrifice fly off Jenkins an inning later.
