Although the Marlins have played much better this month, the team has yet to get much production from catcher, left field, and first base. With Emilio Bonifacio being out for four-to-six months, the team is lacking production in center field as well, currently. Adding on that Heath Bell has been an absolute waste of money for the Marlins so far, fans should feel pretty good about the Marlins chances of playing this kind of ball going forward.

The Marlins are hot in the month of May, with a 18-7 record, this despite of Heath Bell’s best attempts to savage the team. (Image: Robert Mayer-US PRESSWIRE)

Source: FanGraphs

The table was set for Saturday afternoon’s tilt to be a pretty good pitchers duel. Mark Buehrle has been throwing the ball well for the Marlins and the Giants countered with one of their best young pitchers, Madison Bumgarner. Despite strong start from Bumgarner, the Marlins turned in a solid offensive performance, once again, carried by the immortal Giancarlo Stanton.

Stanton helped the Marlins get on the board in the bottom half of the second, when he lined a doubled to left field. After Bumgarner retired Logan Morrison, Donovan Solano, making his first Major League start in left field, singled to drive in Stanton to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead.

That lead was however, short lived. Mark Buehrle went on to allow a double to Manny Burris to lead off the third inning. Burris would score on a run-scoring single by Gregor Blanco to tie the game up, a batter later.

The Marlins countered the Giants run-tying score with a big inning in the bottom half of the third. After Buherle struck out to start the inning, Jose Reyes and Omar Infante had back-to-back singles, and then successfully completed a double steal. With runners on second and third for Hanley Ramirez, Ramirez gave the Marlins a lead with a single that scored Reyes. Bumgarner then decided to pitch around Stanton, who ended up walking. Bumgarner then got Logan Morrison to ground into what should have been a double play, but Morrison ran hard down the line and beat out the throw to first.

As Morrison reached first safely, Infante scored, and then Ramirez came around to score when the ball was dropped at first base. This miscue and the hard running by Morrison gave the Marlins a 4-1 lead through two innings.

The Marlins were able to add on one more run in the sixth inning when Stanton and Morrison lined back-to-back doubles to extend the Marlins lead to 5-1. The Giants were able to cut the lead to three in the eight inning when Ryan Theriot tripled and scored on a Melky Cabrera ground out.

Giancarlo Stanton continued his hot hitting in the month of May with a strong game on Saturday. (Image: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

In the ninth, Heath Bell came in to close the game for the Fish, however, for the second straight evening, Bell struggled enough with a three-run cushion that Ozzie Guillen decided to yank him. Bell walked two men and allowed a base hit and left the game with the bases loaded and recorded only one out.

The problem for Bell, once again, was his control. I am not going to go too much into detail on this, as Michael Jong did an excellent job on his Fishstripes game recap.

After the game, while Ozzie did not back off of his support of Bell as the Marlins closer, he sure as hell seemed less convinced Bell was the man to get the job done.

“The last thing you want to do is take your closer out every day,” Guillen said. “We give him every opportunity to get out of this, and once again he can’t get it done. Right now, it’s not working. I’m going to sleep on it and see if we come up with some ideas. Obviously, fans have their reason to be upset,” Guillen said. “They see the same stuff we see. The difference is here we’re family. Here we’re going to protect each other like brothers. I will take the heat if something goes wrong. But, in the meantime, we’ve got to get it done. I don’t have anymore bullets to protect him.”

Source: FanGraphs

The Miami Marlins got a very strong start from Ricky Nolasco. Nolasco went 7.1 innings, allowing 1 hit, walking one hitter (intentionally), but recorded only one strikeout. Nolasco was not fooling hitters too much, but he was able to limit the damage today. Even with a strong start by Matt Cain, Ricky Nolasco came out of this game as the winner. Ricky’s record now is 3-0. Nolasco has dominated the Giants for his career and improved on his remarkable numbers at AT&T park.

Ricky Nolasco throws one of his best starts of the season on Tuesday night against the Giants.

The Marlins did not seem to solve their offensive woes on this evening, given that the Marlins were facing one of the top pitchers in baseball, this was at least expected.

The Marlins were able to put across their first run of the ball game in the top of the fourth inning. After Jose Reyes led off the inning with a walk and stole second base. Hanley Ramirez came to the plate. On a pitch in the dirt, Reyes was able to take third base. Then Hanley slapped a single past the drawn in infield to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. It was good to see Hanley come up big in a run scoring opportunity and give the Marlins a lead.

To lead off the fifth inning, Giancarlo Stanton lined a home run over the left field wall. According to Tommy Hutton, the ball took just 3.7 seconds to leave the park. It was Stanton’s second homer of the season, and the second in his last three games. The Marlins are sure hoping his bat is heating up.

Miami Marlins teammates congratulate Giancarlo Stanton after his solo home run.

The Giants lone run of the game off of Nolasco in the sixth inning, when Pablo Sandoval lined a home run down the right field line to cut the Marlins lead in half, 2-1.

The Giants threatened to tie the game in the eight inning after getting runners on the corners with no one out. Nolasco was able to settle in and induce Melky Cabrera ground ball that kept Gregor Blanco from scoring from third. With runners on second and third and one out, Ozzie Guillen decided to walk Sandoval intentionally.

Edward Mujica was then brought into the relieve Nolasco. Mujica immediately was able to induce a ground ball double play off the bat of Buster Posey to get the Marlins to the ninth with the lead.

Ozzie showed faith in his closer, handing the ball to him once again in a one-run ball game. This time, Heath Bell was able to come through for the Marlins, pitching a one-two-three inning. The Marlins held on to win the game, 2-1.

The Marlins will be right back in action once again tomorrow. It will be another late night with the Fish, as the game is scheduled for 10:15 PM EST. You can look for a game recap shortly after the game concludes. Carlos Zambrano will take the mound against Barry Zito.

Prediction: Zito will flirt with a perfect game through eight innings and the Giants will jump on Zambrano for 8 earned runs in just two innings.

(I really hope this reverse psychology can help the Marlins start a winning streak.)

You can ‘Like’ Marlin Maniac by clicking here. You can follow Marlin Maniac on Twitter @MarlinManiac and you can follow Ehsan Kassim on Twitter at @ehsank24.

The Marlins now have lost seven out of their last eight ballgames. They will try to change their luck on their west coast trip. The Marlins are just 2-9 on the road this season and will take on the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, and the Houston Astros on their 9-game road trip.

The Marlins road trip will not be a cake walk, especially with their struggling offense. Runs do not come easy in the first two ballparks they play in and the Astros could certainly give the Marlins a very hard time if they do not improve their play.

Ozzie Guillen needs to figure out a way to kick start his struggling team. (Image Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE)

Due to finals and work, I was unable to reach anyone on the San Francisco Giants Fansided site, Around the Fog Horn, so there will be no chat for this series. Hopefully we can jump back onto schedule for the Padres series.

Miami Marlins (8-14) @ San Francisco Giants (12-10), May 1-3, Games 23-25

NL East Standings

 AT&T Park

Five-year Run PF*: .97

Five-year HR PF*: .96

Stadium Dimensions:

Left field – 364 feet
Left-center field – 404 feet
Center field – 399 feet
Right-center field – 421 feet
Right field – 365 feet

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

(more…)