bases to go along with four hits. Hanley Ramírez hit his first career grand slam as the Marlins went on to score 12 runs, the most ever in franchise history on Opening Day. The Marlins started the 2009 season hot by sweeping the Washington Nationals, only the second time they started the season with sweep since the 1997 Marlins team. The Marlins won their first four games for the first time in franchise history and started 11–1, which included 2 out of 3 wins from the Mets, the first Marlins franchise sweep at Turner Field, and three comeback late-inning wins against the Nationals in Washington, sweeping the teams' second series matchup. The 11–1 start was the best start in Marlins history. They then lost their next seven games starting with the 62-99 Pittsburgh Pirates making them the first team in NL history to win seven straight games then lose the next seven. But even though they were below .500 by as many as five games, they rebounded to 2 games above .500 as of July 1, 2009. Cody Ross, the leader of the rebound, hit 2 grand slams in 2 weeks. The Marlins also amazed many in the final series before the All-Star break against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally trailing by seven runs after five innings, the Marlins entered the eighth inning down 7–4, they sent 14 batters to the plate. In the benchmark frame, they collected eight hits, and had eight different players score for a total of ten runs in the inning. In all the Marlins collected 14 unanswered runs as they came back for their 21st come from behind victory of the season. After the first 100 games of the season they stood second in the NL East with a record of 52–48. Coming out of the All-Star break, the Marlins were swept in three games by the Phillies, but they responded by sweeping the Padres in San Diego before taking two of three against the Dodgers. That 5-1 West Coast road trip—from July 20–26—reinforced to management that the team was in contention. Instead of being sellers at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, first baseman Nick Johnson was acquired from the Nationals for pitching prospect Aaron Thompson, in the hopes that Johnson would bring his renowned plate discipline to the forefront of the Marlins' lineup. However other rumors began to surface that the team was exploring