The trouble started in the second inning though for Nolasco as he gave up singles to the first two Nationals batters of the inning. Both of those runners would come around to score before the inning was done.  Nolasco then allowed a home run to Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki in the fifth inning.  It was the third home run Nolasco has given up on the season, all of them coming off of Nationals bats.  Bryce Harper continued to absolutely own Ricky Nolasco.   As a matter of fact, after the game, Harper was seen folding Nolasco up and packing him in his duffel bag for the trip home.  He pounded out three more hits off the right hander including a lead off double in the sixth when he scored the fourth run of the night for the Nationals.  Harper finished the game going 4 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI despite being so ill that he required an IV before the game and was seen vomiting between innings.

Apr 12, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco (47) throws the ball in the third inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

The Marlins offense returned to form after having scored eight runs the previous night, they were held to just a single run on seven hits.  The Marlins run came in the fifth inning when Chris Valaika doubled to open the inning and then came around to score on a single to right by Donovan Solano.  There was a bang bang play at the plate as Valaika executed a beautiful slide to get around the tag by the Nationals catcher.  Replays showed he may have actually been out on the play and the Nationals briefly disputed the call.  The Marlins have now scored just 32 runs in 15 games which ranks them last in the majors in that category.

On the injury front, Adeiny Hechavarria was a late scratch from the lineup with elbow soreness.  Valaika started in his place at shortstop, which meant he has now started a game at each of the four infield positions this season.  First baseman Joe Mahoney was activated from the 15-day DL and made a pinch hit appearance going 0 for 1.  Finally, Giancarlo Stanton is expected to rejoin the lineup on Thursday after sitting out the last six games with a shoulder contusion.

Up Next: The Marlins travel to Cincinnati to take on the Reds starting on Thursday.  The matchup will be rookie sensation Jose Fernandez (0-0) going for the Marlins against Tony Cingrani (0-0) for the Reds who will be making his first major league start after just being recalled from the minors.

Prediction: The Nationals win 5-2. Big Z goes only 3 innings for the Marlins, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits. Detwiler, meanwhile goes 7 strong shutout innings for the Nationals.

 

I was at least half right. The Washington Nationals did win the game behind a very strong start from Ross Detwiler, 2 to 0.

Ross Detwiler has gotten off to a hot start in 2012, he only continued that against the Marlins. (Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE)

I was incorrect on Carlos Zambrano. Big Z did not struggle like I suspected he would Zambrano went 7 very solid innings for the Marlins. He struck out 6 hitters and did not walk a batter. The only blemish on Zambrano’s line was Rick Ankiel.

Source: FanGraphs

The Marlins best scoring chance happened in the second inning. Giancarlo Stanton led the inning off with a single. After a Gaby Sanchez line out, Austin Kearns lined a double down the third base line to set the Marlins up second and third with only one out. John Buck lifted a fly ball, but unfortunately for the Marlins, it was hit to Rick Ankiel, who has one of the strongest outfield arms in baseball. Donnie Murphy then struck out to end the inning.

Rick Ankiel led off the bottom of the third with a solo shot to center. It was the Nationals first hit of the game. Ankiel also had a hit in the fifth inning. His single off of Zambrano in the fifth was the second, and the last hit the Nats would get off of Big Z this evening.

This game was a pitchers dual that we would have expected for either game 2 or 3 of this series. Both pitchers brought their A games.

Detwiler pitched a gem of a game going six, with three hits, no earned runs, and seven strikeouts. With only 79 pitches, Detwiler was lifted after 6 innings. Have to wonder if he was on some kind of a pitch count?

Zambrano finished the game going seven innings, with two hits, one earned run, and six strikeouts. I assume he would have pitched the eight inning, but the Marlins needed to get some kind of offense going, so the Marlins sent Chris Coghlan instead.

Zambrano had his best start of the season, and as a Marlin Friday night against the Nationals. (Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE)

After Logan Morrison beat out an infield single, Chris Coghlan sent a deep shot to the warning track. Rick Ankiel was able to get underneath it at the wall and retire Coghlan. Jose Reyes grounded out, but Morrison was able to advance to second.

Next batter had the at bat of the game. Emilio Bonifacio fouled off 7 straight pitches and faced 15 total pitches before he drew a walk. The Marlins now had their hottest batter, and the guys they need at the plate. Tonight however, was not going to be a heroic one for Hanley Ramirez. He swung at a high fastball to end the threat. The Marlins were trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the eight.

Steve Cishek handled the eight inning for the Marlins. Cishek struck out Xavier Nady, then Ankiel came up again, and got his third hit of the game. On the hit, Ankiel rounded second and dared Stanton to throw him out. Stanton threw a perfect ball to second, but Jose Reyes missed the tag and Ankiel had himself a double. The next batter, Jesus Flores hit a grounder back to Cishek and Cishek had Ankiel hung between second and third. Cishek, however, decided to go to first base and retired Flores.

This poor decision would come back to haunt the Marlins. After intentionally walking former Marlin, Chad Tracy, Ian Desmond singled to score Ankiel, extending the Nats lead over the Fish to 2 to 0.

This was the first run Cishek had allowed in his 9 appearances (8.1 innings) this season.

In the ninth, Henry Rodriguez came into attempt to close the game for the Nationals. Rodriguez got Stanton to fly out to shallow center. Rodriguez walked Sanchez and allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch. Greg Dobbs flew out and John Buck drew a walk. With the game tying run on second, Chris Coghlan grounded into a fielders choice to end the game.

The Nationals win and move to 11-4 and the Marlins fell to 7-7. Both teams will be right back at it on Saturday afternoon. Remember, this game will start at 1:05 PM EST. The game will feature two of the better pitchers in baseball, Anibal Sanchez and Stephen Strasburg.

Prediction: Anibal Sanchez throws a gem, going eight shutout innings and allowing only one hit. Strasburg allows three runs over seven innings for the Nationals. Marlins win the game 3-0.

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I was able to talk to Michael Natelli from District on Deck. Here is a look at the chat we had.

Ehsan: The Washington Nationals are off to a hot start. Is the Nationals pitching staff as good as we are seeing now, or should we expect some regression?

Michael: It’s hard to say they’ll be this good for 162 games, simply because of how well they’ve performed. If each of the five starters performed at their best for the whole season, I wouldn’t question the concept, however, I just don’t see that happening. Every player has hot and cold streaks (in this case on the mound), so the rotation is likely to drop off some. But, when Edwin Jackson (12-9 last year, 3.79 ERA) is your fourth guy, that says something about this staff. Though it won’t be perfect, I expect pitching to be a highlight of this year’s season.

Ehsan: Bryce Harper has struggled a bit in Triple-A, does this slow start delay the Nationals plans on when they are going to bring him up?

Michael: Well first off let’s establish that the man isn’t even 20 yet, so there’s no reason to be concerned long term at this point. But to get to your specific question, it’s still unclear as to what the Nationals’ plans are with Harper. They brought him into Big League Camp, but it never sounded like they were intending on actually giving him a roster spot for Opening Day. Harper is indeed struggling right now, so to me, his call-up time table depends on a few things. 1) Around late-June/early-July, where are the Nats in the standings? At that point they will have a sense of whether or not they’ll be competing, so that will help with making the decision of whether or not to bring Harper up from the minors. 2) At that point, what’s the production from Rick Ankiel/Roger Bernadina looking like? If collectively they’re slacking and that’s causing the Nationals to lose games, that may motivate the Front Office to give Harper a shot. 

Bryce Harper, only 19, is going to debut in the majors sometime in 2012. (Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-US PRESSWIRE)

Ehsan: It’s too early in the season to look at numbers and make a judgment on any player, but in your opinion, has Jayson Werth proving to be the player the Nats wanted when they signed him to that long contract a season ago?

Michael: No one really knows what exactly the Nationals were looking for when they acquired Werth. Some say they thought he’d be the impact bat that would guide them to the playoffs, while others say that Werth was just a decent player the Nationals wanted, and they saw it as an opportunity to show the world/future free agents that they’re willing to spend in order to get the future free agents to start considering them. My personal expectations for Werth were to hover around .270-.275 with 20-25 homers and 90 or so RBIs, with roughly 15 stolen bases. His home runs and stolen bases (20 and 19, respectively) were as expected, but the RBIs and hits were not there. Granted some of that was due to a lingering injury to Ryan Zimmerman, but he should have had at least 70 RBIs in Zimmerman’s absence, and it still doesn’t justify the 130 hits.

So again, to answer your question, I think Werth will indeed become the player the Nationals wanted this season. Will he be worth his salary? No. But what the Nationals wanted? Yes. He won’t keep up the .327 average he currently has, but somewhere in the .280′s in not inconceivable, and when Michael Morse returns, that will take some pressure off, allowing Jayson to be himself more. Assuming Morse stays in the lineup and Zimmerman is healthy, Werth will return to form.

Ehsan:Stephen Strasburg is a monster on that mound. Is his inning count going to hurt the team later down the road? 160 is the magic number, I believe.

Michael: Strasburg has been a blast to watch and yes, 160 is the number. The way this bullpen has performed so far, I don’t believe the innings limit will hurt the team as far as pulling him early goes, but in terms of Strasburg missing starts come August/September, the team will definitely suffer. Strasburg has been a Top 5 pitcher in the NL so far, so even if whoever replaces him (presumably Chien-Ming Wang?) pitches well, he won’t duplicate Strasburg’s success. So unfortunately, this dreaded innings limit may come back and haunt the Nationals come playoff time. But if Strasburg goes on to have the career people expect him to, it will be well worth it.

Strasburg will take the mound against Anibal Sanchez in the second game of the three game set. (Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE)

Ehsan: What pitching match up are you looking forward to most this series? What about pitcher-hitter match up?

Michael: I’m very excited to watch tonight’s matchup of Ross Detwiler and Carlos Zambrano, as this is Detwiler’s first time facing the Marlins as a starter, and it will be a much different team than he has seen in the past. Zambrano’s career numbers against the Nats also make this an interesting matchup, because despite not being the greatest pitcher over the past few years, Zambrano holds an 8-3 career record against the Nationals with a 3.35 ERA in 15 appearances. So, neither team’s ace will be on the mound, but tonight’s matchup makes for a good story. 

Thanks to Michael for answering those questions for us on MM. Good luck to the Nationals and their fans in this series. Go Marlins!

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LAST SERIES PREDICTIONS (CUBS)

1. Giancarlo Stanton WILL go yard

HR’s: Zero. Through 13 games of the season, Giancarlo Stanton has yet to hit a round trip. While this is no reason to doubt Stanton, I am still baffled. Even though he has seen an abundance of outside sliders/curveballs, he still has had great power ball pitch’s that he has failed to launch. He has come up with some big hits, but is still struggling with plate discipline.

 Josh Johnson will bounce back and show us that we should not be worried. ***

And he did just that! Johnson rebounded and thew 7 innings of 2 run baseball. While he walked 3, he still gave us the numbers we expected and a chance to win a ballgame. He recorded just 3 strikeouts, but managed to improve the velocity of his pitch’s through a mechanic change. Johnson seems to be back on track.

April 17, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Josh Johnson (55) throws in the seventh inning against the Chicago Cubs at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

3. Emilio Bonifacio will reach base all 3 games ***

Not only did he reach all 3 games, he reached twice or more in every game played! Bonifacio believe it or not looked like a damn good ballplayer this weekend. His ability to get on base is incredible, and don’t forget, hes 9-9 on stolen base attempts. Keep it up Bonifacio, you may be turning some heads pretty soon.

4. Heath Bell will record a save ***

Heath Bell rebounded from a terrible start this season and recorded 2 saves this series. Bell pitched 2 innings of scoreless baseball while recording 3 strikeouts.

April 17, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins relief pitcher Heath Bell (left) greets Miami Marlins catcher John Buck (right) after defeating the Chicago Cubs 5-2 at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

5. The Marlins will execute their first sweep of the  season ***

AND THEY DID! GO MARLINS

Below I will make my 5 predictions for the upcoming series with the Wasington Nationals 

1. The Starting Pitching will be the key to taking the series

Even though the Nationals are without Michael Morse and Drew Storen, they are still a very good ball team. With a pitching staff of Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmerman, and Edwin Jackson, the Nationals are no team to mess around with. Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, Ian Desmond, and Adam Laroche have all been hitting the ball well and should challenge the pitching rotation heavily. Our starters need to be on point with few mistakes to come out with a series win. Falling behind early to the Nationals is the last thing you want to do.

April 14, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano (38) throws in the first inning against the Houston Astros at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

2. Heath Bell will continue to see pressure

Minus the first game of the series, I expect these games to come down to a 1-2 run ball game in the 9th. Lets hope Bell is the man on the mound looking to close the game!

3. Bonifacio will again reach base every game this series

The little man has it going! Bonifacio is on a red hot start and will show no signs on slowing down. Expect him to reach base 6 or more times adding a couple steals along the way.

April 14, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins center fielder Emilio Bonifacio (center) jokes with teammates before a game against the Houston Astros at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

4. Stephen Strasburg will give up less than 4 hits all game.

Strasburg is a dominate pitcher, and he will show us. At points in time, Strasburg show’s that he can be the most feared pitcher in baseball with his fearless demeanor. The kid will punch you out before you know you have 3 strikes. Hopefully Stanton and Ramirez bring the power out of the tool shed. “The harder it flows, the longer it goes”

Apr. 11, 2012; Flushing, NY, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg (37) pitches during the first inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

5. The Marlins win 2 of 3 and gain huge momentum heading into NY.

The Marlins will rough up Ross Detwiler, even though he has pitched good baseball. Game 2 will be a struggle with Strasburg so expect the worst, hope for the best. Game 3, Josh Johnson will continue his success and earn his first victory of the year.

The Marlins are on a four-game winning streak and sit at 7-6, over .500 winning percentage for the first time in 2012. The Marlins are now 2.5 games back of the Washington Nationals, headed into a series with the division leader. Here is the series preview for the two rival NL East teams.

Source: FanGraphs

Ricky Nolasco started the game for the Miami Marlins and it was apparent early on that he did not have his best stuff on this afternoon.

Nolasco retired the first two hitters of the game with ease. Then Starlin Castro and Alfonso Soriano got back-to-back singles before Nolasco retired Ian Stewart to get out of the first inning scoreless.

After a Jose Reyes strikeout, Emilio Bonifacio walked and stole second base. Hanley Ramirez lined a base hit to set up the Marlins first and third with just one out. Logan Morrison drove in Bonifacio with a broken bat single. Giancarlo Stanton then grounded out to score Ramirez. The Marlins had a 2 to 0 lead after one inning.

In the second inning Nolasco loaded the bases after walking David DeJesus. Darwin Barney was able to clear the bases with a three-run triple to give the Cubs a 3 to 2 lead.

On the Barney triple, Giancarlo Stanton misplayed the ball, which allowed Barney to get a triple as well as allowing the three runs to score. Overall, Stanton had a horrible game in right field. He missed a chance to throw a runner out at third and missed a catch-able ball on a diving attempt. Stanton has not been at his best early on in 2012.

In the third inning, a rare occurence took place. After a Jose Reyes walk, Emilio Bonifacio grounded into a double play. I highly doubt you will be able to see that again anytime soon.

The third inning was the Marlins huge inning. Hanley Ramirez led off the inning with a bunt single, a bunt he only took to match Ian Stewart beating out a bunt hit to Hanley. On the first pitch, Hanley was up and running and stole second base. After a Logan Morrison walk and a Stanton ground out to move Hanley and LoMo to second and third, Gregg Dobbs delivered a big two-run double to give the Marlins a 4-3 lead. Later that inning, Nolasco lined a broken bat single to extend the Marlins lead to 5-3.

That would be all the scoring we would see for the day. The Marlins bullpen took over for Nolasco after 5.1 innings. Mike Dunn, Ryan Webb, Randy Choate, Edward Mujica, and Heath Bell combined to go 4.2 innings of hit less ball to win the game for the Marlins. In fact, the Marlins bullpen did not allow a base runner in the game.

Bell converted his second straight save after blowing the first two. The key for Bell, keeping hitters off of the bases and pitching effectively. Bell struck out two of the three hitters he faced.

Very good team win for the Marlins on Thursday afternoon. They will be right back at it tonight against their divison rivals, the Washington Nationals. Tonight’s pitching match up is Carlos Zambrano vs Ross Detwiler.

Prediction: The Nationals win 5-2. Big Z goes only 3 innings for the Marlins, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits. Detwiler, meanwhile goes 7 strong shutout innings for the Nationals.

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.