The Marlins have been playing very well as of late, as they are winners of seven of their last ten ballgames. If the Marlins can win tonight, they will be back at .500 for the first time since June 18th, when the Marlins fell to the Tampa Bay Rays to drop their record to 33-33.

In care you were wondering, last year, at this time, the Marlins were sitting at 40-48. This years Marlins team is just a little bit better.

July 6, 2012; St. Louis, MO. USA; Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton (27) poses with his National League All Star Game jersey before a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The Marlins won 3-2. (Image: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE)

Busch Stadium

Five-year Run PF*: 0.99
Five-year HR PF*: 0.92
Stadium Dimensions:
Left field line—330 ft.
Left-center field—372 ft.
Center field—402 ft.
Right-center field—375 ft.
Right field line—330 ft.

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

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The first two games of the series against the St. Louis Cardinals were a microcosm of the Marlins struggles in the month of June. Monday night, the Marlins blew a four-run lead in the ninth inning and ended up losing the game in the tenth inning, blowing an opportunity to win the game in the bottom half of the ninth. On Tuesday, the Carlos Zambrano got beat up in the first inning, allowing five unearned runs, and never got back into the ballgame, losing that game 5-2.

Wednesday night, the Marlins were finally able to fight back against the month of June and pull out a victory.

Heath Bell and catcher John Buck celebrate the Marlins big win over the Cards. (Image: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

Source: FanGraphs

The game did not quite start the way the Marlins would have wanted it to start. Anibal Sanchez, starting for the Marlins, came into the game with an ERA/FIP of 8.09/5.43 for the month of June. In the first inning, it looked like it would be more of these same struggles that Anibal had suffered through this month.

After walking the second batter of the game, John Jay, Matt Holliday doubled to deep right to set-up a second and third situation with Carlos Beltran at the plate. Beltran was able to score Jay on a sacrifice fly, which was followed up by a run-scoring double for David Freese. Matt Carpenter then scorched a single to Giancarlo Stanton, who was able to gather the ball and easily throw out Freese at home plate for the final out of the inning. Stanton bailed out Anibal big time, and Anibal’s night would improve from there, as he was able to retire 9 straight hitters after the out at home.

After coming up with a big hit for the Cardinals in their win on Monday, Joe Kelly was on the mound for the Cardinals. For the most part, Kelly was able to control the Marlins hitters through the first four innings, scattering three base hits.

In the fifth inning, the Marlins offense made a comeback. After Omar Infante and Gaby Sanchez each walked to lead off the inning, John Buck was able to single up the middle and cut the lead in half. After an Anibal Sanchez sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third, Jose Reyes grounded out to tie the ballgame at two a piece.

The action was limited until the seventh inning, when Tony Cruz, who was starting for the Marlins killer this series, Yadier Molina, blasted the first pitch he saw from Anibal to start the inning out of the park to put the Cards back on top.

The Marlins would quickly respond with a John Buck one out homer in the bottom half of the seventh. Logan Morrison, who was brought into pinch hit, followed Buck with his own home run. The home run was ruled a home run, then the first base umpire ruled it as a double, after a look at instant replay, the call was overturned and LoMo had given the Marlins a 4-3 lead.

Miami Marlins left fielder Logan Morrison rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Marlins Park. (Image: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

Steve Cishek came on in relief of Anibal Sanchez and gave the Marlins a quick, 1-2-3 inning. The Marlins were able to tack on a run on an Omar Infante double to stretch their lead to 5-3. Heath Bell was brought out to close the game.

After a lead off single by Carpenter, Bell was able to retire the following three hitters to close out the game, but that did not mean that the save did not come without any scares. Yadier Molina, pinch hitting for the pitcher, tabbed a ball back to Bell, who fired the ball to second base. Jose Reyes was late covering second base and the ball got by him, luckily for the Marlins, Infante was there and was able to scoop the ball up and throw Molina out. Bell then got Allen Craig to fly out to end the game.

The Marlins win 5-3, behind a strong start by Anibal Sanchez. Sanchez lasted seven innings, allowing seven hits, striking out four, and walking just two. It was his best start of the month of June and the first time he went seven innings since May 29th against the Washington Nationals.

The Marlins bounced back in a big way tonight and earned a very important win for the ball club.  Hopefully with this win, the Marlins can build some momentum and start a winning streak. The Marlins will next host the last team they beat in a series to start the month of June, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Giancarlo Stanton hits his 17th home run of the season, this one travels 456 feet. (Image: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

Currently, Omar Infante is the only Marlins positional player that has earned enough votes to be among the leaders at his position. That is a very pathetic showing from Marlins fans. Here is a look at the voting, as of yesterday.

Even without the fan voting, Stanton has a decent shot of making the team. It is very unlikely that Stanton’s peers and coaches around baseball will ignore his talents, like the fans have thus far. Though, if they choose to ignore him as well, we can still see him in the home run derby.

Stanton will have a chance to put his power on national display in the Home Run Derby in Kansas City on July 9. Hopefully the rest of the fans of the MLB take note, as going forward, Stanton should be a perennial starter in the game.

“We’re in there,” Stanton confirmed to Marlins beat writers before taking part in B.P today.

June 25, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins catcher

Once again, the Marlins found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Ricky Nolasco delivered a strong performance last night, with only four hits and one unearned run over 6 2/3 innings of work. Randy Choate and Edward Mujica came in and delivered a walk each before finishing the seventh inning.  Steve Cishek gave up a run in the eighth, which brought Mike Dunn to the mound for the remainder of the inning.  The fun really started with Heath Bell’s ninth-inning appearance. A leadoff walk to Rafael Furcal, followed by a double and a single brought Yadier Molina to the plate.  A fastball left up in the zone got sent over the left field wall, tying the game.

In the bottom of the ninth, Jose Reyes led off with a strikeout. Hanley Ramirez singled to center field, followed by a Giancarlo Stanton walk.  With one out and the winning run in scoring position, Gaby Sanchez grounded into a double play to end the inning.

In the tenth inning, Tyler Greene singled to left field. With the winning run at first and one out, instead of grounding into a double play, Rafael Furcal hit a hard double the opposite way down the left-field line, allowing Greene to score. Chad Gaudin tallied the second out on a soft grounder from Shane Robinson.  Matt Holliday reached first base after being grazed on the forearm on an inside pitch.  Because of a double-switch screwup by Cardinals manager Mike Matheney, the next batter was Carlos Beltran, followed by pinch-hitter Joe Kelly.  Joe Kelly is a opitcher not scheduled to appear until tonight, and had not yet logged a major-league base hit in his career.  Beltran drew an intentional walk that loaded the bases, and last night was the night young Mr. Kelly tallied that first base hit, driving Furcal across the plate.

The Marlins did a number of things right last night, and certainly looked like they were on track to follow up their 9-0 shutout of the Blue Jays with another strong win against the powerhouse offense of the Cardinals. A blown save by Heath Bell, a 2-error play by Hanley Ramirez, Gaby Sanchez grounding into a double play in a clutch situation, and a bobble and a bad throw by Jose Reyes turned the game into one of the most frustrating games of the season.

Fans, June is not over for the Marlins yet. Tonight, Carlos Zambrano faces Kyle Lohse, and I suspect the demoralizing effect of last night’s game will be harder to shake off, and that the Cardinal bats will give Big Z some trouble.

April 4, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Josh Johnson (55) struggles through his Opening Day start. (Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

As indicated by the leverage index, the St. Louis Cardinals grabbed control of the game early, and were never willing to let it go. David Freese singled to left field, scoring Carlos Beltran and Lance Berkman in the top of the first inning to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

Source: FanGraphs

The Marlins debuted their team in front of a crowd of 36,601, the first sale out in Miami Marlins history. The stadium was absolutely gorgeous. The Marlins player introductions were awesome, although thank you ESPN for ruining Giancarlo Stanton‘s. The girls that escorted the Marlins players to the field were scorching hot.  Too bad it was not the Marlins bats did not catch any of the Heat from those girls, or from Lebron James, who put on a show, just a few miles away.

A combination of a struggling Josh Johnson and the Marlins offense going into hiding was not a good recipe for the Marlins.

On a side note, it was really depressing to see the great Muhammad Ali in the state of health he was. Wish him the best and will always love him. For those wondering about his Miami connection, Ali trained in Miami as a young fighter and won the heavyweight title for the first time in 1964, knocking out Sonny Liston.

JJ’s Rough Outing:

I think we should all remember, this was Johnson’s first major league start since last May. Yes, I know he pitched in spring training, but that is not at all the same as pitching in an actual game that counts. It will take JJ a couple of starts before he finds that flow he had last season.

Almost all of the 10 hits Johnson allowed were on balls that were left up and over the plate. In the major leagues, you are not going to get away with that too many times. Johnson also continued an annoying trend he has shown over the past few seasons. Johnson saw 19 two-strike counts and converted on only four strikeouts. His inability to finish batters off has caused high pitch counts for him in the past, thus leading to shorter outings.

Lohse Dominates:

The Marlins did not have many quality at-bats against Lohse. Gaby Sanchez looked completely lost at the plate against him. Lohse was able to blow away Hanley Ramirez with a low-90′s fastball. Emilio Bonifacio killed two rallies by grounding out after Jose Reyes led off the inning by getting on base.

Giancarlo Stanton did hit a couple of balls well, but unfortunately, they were caught both times. Jose Reyes went 2-for-4, providing half of the hits for the Marlins.

All in all, the Marlins did not have quality at-bats off of Lohse and made him look like Roy Halladay. The Marlins have always had a tough time with soft-tossing pitchers. They should get better offensively as the season goes on. One game is not something Marlins fans should start freaking out about.

Looking back at the preview:

These are the questions I asked during the preview. I have the answers after the first game in bold

• Going to be interesting to see how JJ looks in his first start of the 2012 season. Is he going to have a pitch limit? Johnson threw 91 pitches, so early on, he was not put on any pitch limit.
• Kyle Loshe is one of the best pitchers in baseball at holding runners from stealing bases. How is this going to affect Reyes and Bonifacio’s games? Will Ozzie Guillen still keep an aggressive approach on the bases. Reyes got on twice, but the timing was not right to steal. Bonifacio got on by being plunked on the foot, that affected him on base.
• How are the Miami Marlins players going to react to being on a nationally televised game? Jose Reyes is the only Marlin regular with a lot of exposure to this. The Marlins offense was anemic and JJ struggled. Reyes did have two hits.
• Most important question, how many times is the home run structure going to go off on opening night? How long before fans start booing home runs because of this monstrosity? Only went off once before the game. No boos were heard.

We have a game today at 4PM ET against the Cincinnati Reds, lets hope the Marlins can bounce back tonight! Here is the series preview.

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