Chairman of the 'board: Stanton does damage

That's because it damaged property.

The Marlins' 22-year-old slugger hits a baseball arguably as hard as anyone in the game. But never before did the impact of one of his drives take out a piece of a stadium -- in this case, an auxiliary scoreboard.

Stanton scorched a grand slam off Rockies lefty Jamie Moyer in the fourth inning of the Marlins' 7-4 win on Monday at Marlins Park.

The drive, estimated at 438 feet, remained just fair, and it smacked into the video scoreboard in left field.

On impact, a block of lights flickered out.

"Today is the first," Stanton said. "We got something new today. But it came back to life."

Indeed, it did.

The scoreboard was reset and operating as good as new an inning later. But for a little bit, there was a huge, dark blotch.

"I keep saying, this kid is very strong, I've never seen anything like that," Miami manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I don't see a ball come off of a bat like that."

Initially, Stanton was more concerned if the ball was fair. He didn't necessarily know where the ball landed.

"I was just worried about it going fair," said Stanton, who has nine home runs this season. "Once I saw it was fair, I didn't see it hit the scoreboard. I was waiting if it was going to be fair. When I looked back, I saw the big ol' spot in there."

In the dugout, Stanton took a lot of ribbing from his teammates.

"I got the bill," he joked.

The Marlins' bullpen is below the scoreboard, and the relievers had a good view of Stanton's latest test of strength.

"We were all laughing, it broke the scoreboard," closer Heath Bell said. "They're going to have to reset it or do the bulbs. When he connects, you just know it's gone. Stanton crushed that ball, and kept it fair."

Bell, 34, was asked if he's seen anything like it.

"Yeah, just because I've been around," Bell quipped. "But I haven't seen a ball leave the yard that fast. He hit it, and all of a sudden, it was off the scoreboard. It was pretty cool."