‘El Duque’ Beats Marlins to Delight of Miami Crowd

The Florida Marlins’ biggest crowd of the season roared in approval as Orlando Hernandez beat the hometown team.

Hernandez gave up no earned runs in 6 2/3 innings and Jorge Posada drove in five runs Friday night to lead the New York Yankees to an 8-4 victory over the Marlins.

The crowd of 40,161 produced a noisy atmosphere uncommon in Miami since the breakup of the Marlins’ 1997 World Series championship team. But many fans were rooting for the Yankees and especially Hernandez (7-5).

The half brother of the Marlins’ Livan Hernandez became a hero to Miami’s large Cuban population when he defected from Cuba in December 1997. “El Duque” gave up five hits and two runs in his first game at Miami.

“This is a very emotional game for me,” he said through a translator. “I was happy to pitch well in front of a lot of Cuban fans.”

The crowd included his two daughters, his mother and Livan Hernandez’s mother.

“They gave me a lot of power,” Orlando Hernandez said.

Livan gets his turn today against Roger Clemens. “El Duque” and Livan plan to have lunch together before the game and dinner together afterward.

The Yankee pitcher walked two and struck out three. When he left with two out in the seventh and the Yankees leading, 6-1, many fans gave him a standing ovation.

Posada hit a three-run homer to break a 1-1 tie in a five-run seventh. He came in batting .189 with six homers and 20 runs batted in.