" Baseball. Ah, yes. The Marlins. Almost forgot. That has been too easy to do around here lately, with the Heat in mid-playoff run utterly dominating our sports landscape.

Tuesday served up a great, welcome night to remember, to reacquaint with an old friend, to remind ourselves that the underappreciated Marlins are (undetected thus far by most radar) enjoying early success that inspires hope this season might just stretch improbably into October, after all.

A buoyant, festive crowd of 21,955 turned out, a hugely above-average gate for the day of the week, and the count was legitimate, too, seeming to me to be even bigger.

It helped that the Heat was off, the Big 3 idling before revving for Game 5 here against Boston on Wednesday. Also didn't hurt that the visiting Phillies are a big draw with a local following.

Mostly, though, the Marlins' unusually full house was drawn by a pair of aces: Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay.

There is something about a pitcher's duel, isn't there?

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning can play each other, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade can be on the same court, but it doesn't register as a "duel," eyeball to eyeball, the way it seems to in this sport.

Halladay pitched a perfect game here last May 29 to trump Johnson when last these two met at the Dolphins' stadium.

Neither was close to perfect Tuesday night. But both were close enough to fashion a compelling game, eventually won by Florida 2-1 when Chris Coghlan's eighth-inning single sent the crowd chant-roaring, "Let's go Marlins!", almost as if we had forgotten for a moment this wasn't a baseball town."