Source: FanGraphs

The game got off to the perfect start for the Marlins. Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez both singled to left field to start the game. Then, a rarely out of control Zack Greinke walked Giancarlo Stanton to load the bases. Greinke then was able to settle down and get a huge strikeout of Logan Morrison.  The inning had a very June feeling after LoMo’s strikeout, as the feeling was that the Marlins would not get anything out of the inning.

Ruggiano continues to be the Marlins hottest hitter, as he hit a home run and drove in a career high four runs on Monday. (Image: Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE)

Fortunately, the Marlins have a scorching hot bat on their side in Justin Ruggiano. With the bases loaded and one out, Ruggiano squeaked a ball into left field, past Aramis Ramirez that score Reyes and Ramirez. The Marlins had a 2-0 lead over Greinke after just half an inning.

Zambrano would be quick to give back one of the two runs the Marlins scored in the bottom of the first inning. After retiring the first two hitters, Big Z hit Ryan Braun, then went on to walk three straight hitters, the last being Rickie Weeks, which scored Braun from third. The Brewers were on the board with no base hits to their name.

The Brewers then tied the game in the bottom half of the second after a Ceasar Izturis triple and Greinke sacrifice fly. After the Izturis triple, Zambrano was able to settle down, retiring the next Brewers ten hitters, before a Carlos Gomez homer in the fifth.

With Zambrano settling in, the Marlins were able to grab control of the ballgame in the third inning. After a Hanley walk, Logan Morrison doubled to right to score Hanley from first. The Marlins regained the lead, 3-2. The very next hitter, Ruggiano, continued his hot hitting, by hitting a deep home run to left field. That gave the Marlins a 5-2 lead, and put Greinke on the ropes for his first loss at Miller Park, ever.

Marlins catcher John Buck was thrown out of the game before the sixth after complaining about a questionable check swing call to the home plate umpire Derryl Cousins. After watching replays, it was very obvious that Buck did not swing. He was also very upset about some of the calls that Greinke and the Brewers were getting and Big Z was not. Here is a video of what happened.

Brewers tied the game when Travis Ishikawa singled off of Zambrano, driving in two runners. It was obvious at that the time that Zambrano was too tired to go on. Ozzie should have taken him out after the fifth inning, but that is his call, not mine. Unfortunately, it was a move that bit the Marlins in the but.

But this was not the deciding outcome in the game, as the eight inning was the inning that proved to be the pivotal inning for the Marlins.

The Marlins got a leadoff double in the eighth and could not score. The Brewers got a leadoff double in the bottom half and parlayed it into the game-winning run. That was the Marlins story of June, and two days into July, the inability to drive runners in from scoring position is still a major factor.

After Stanton reached on his double, Corey Hart made a nice defensive play to rob LoMo of a hit, but it did move Stanton to third with one out. The next hitter, Ruggiano was robbed of a base hit on a great play by Aramis Ramirez. That was followed up by an intentional walk to Dobbs and a four-pitch walk to Omar Infante. Brett Hayes was then robbed by Ramirez, as the Marlins were denied a run in the eight.

Rickie Weeks led off the eight inning with a double and was followed up by a Martin Moldonado single to right to setup the Brewers with runners and first and third, no one out. Norichika Aoki was then able to execute the perfect bunt to score Weeks. The Brewers took the lead and John Axford was able to finish the Marlins off, easily.

The he Marlins take on the Brewers again today at Miller Park. at 4:10 PM ET. On the mound for Miami will be Anibal Sanchez, and he will face Marco Estrada of the Brewers. The Marlins will need this game to even the series and try to establish some winning before the All-Star break.

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.”

May 22, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco (47) pitches the ball against the Colorado Rockies in the third inning at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-US PRESSWIRE

With their 7-6 victory over the cellar-dwelling Colorado Rockies last night, the Marlins are now 5 games over .500, and have moved into third place in the NL East, ahead of the Mets.

Ricky Nolasco moved to the top of the Marlins’ all-time wins leaderboard last night by pitching six innings of solid effort, giving up four runs and eight hits, with six strikeouts. The win boosted his Marlins win record to 69, nudging him ahead of Dontrelle Willis. Nolasco took his mind off of his pitching long enough to rope a 2-RBI gapper to the left-center wall in the bottom of the third inning.

The Rockies started the game by blooping four base hits to the shallow outfield, and tallied three quick runs in a near mirror image of the start of Monday’s game. However, in the top of the second, Nolasco faced pitcher Juan Nicasio in the leadoff slot, and was able to dial in his breaking ball. From that point on, he only gave up one more run.

The ball stayed in the park last night for Giancarlo Stanton, but he was still able to demonstrate his speed and strength with a line-drive double in the bottom of the third that went straight up the middle of the field. The hit was close enough to Nicasio’s head that the local Fox Sports telecast dredged up footage of the comebacker that nearly killed him last year.

The Marlins’ bullpen took over in the seventh, with Steve Cishek, Edward Mujica, Randy Choate and Ryan Webb setting the table for a dramatic close by Heath Bell.  Giving up a double to Jordan Pacheco and allowing Carlos Gonzalez a sacrifice put the tying run on third with one out in the top of the ninth. Demonstrating the utter disregard for situational pressure that is the hallmark of a true closer, Bell forced a Troy Tulowitzki popout to Jose Reyes, and then took slugger Todd Helton through a 7-pitch at-bat that ended with a game-stopping outside fastball that didn’t even make Helton twitch.

Troy Tulowitzki and both catchers made bad throws, charging the Rockies with two errors and the Marlins with one.

Chris Coghlan, called back up from the minors, filled in for the hot-hitting Austin Kearns. Kearns was sidelined with a tight hamstring, but Cogs did reasonably well, going 1/3 with an RBI single and a leaping catch on the run in left field to stop a Rockies rally in the eighth. Also up from the minors, Donovan Solano registered his first big-league hit in his first big-league at-bat.

The Marlins close the series with Colrado tonight. Carlos Zambrano (2-2, 1.96 ERA) faces Alex White (0-3, 5.09 ERA). Thursday starts a four game series hosting the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are in second place in the NL West, seven games behind the white-hot, best-in-baseball Dodgers. Anibal Sanchez, Josh Johnson, and Mark Buehrle are scheduled to start against Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum, and Madison Bumgarner, respectively. Ricky Nolasco is scheduled to start Sunday’s game four, but the Giants haven’t announced their starter yet.

At the same time, the Nationals and the Braves face off in Atlanta. The Nationals have won two of three against the last-place Phillies, and are ½ game ahead of the Braves.  As long as the Marlins can hold off the Giants, the top of the NL East should be the most competitive division in baseball.

Predictions:

Marlins easily top the Rockies for the sweep.  Infante is back, and the bench players have stepped in very well.

The Marlins take two of the four against San Francisco.  Lincecum is struggling, and Bumgarner will hang a cotton ball or two in front of the Marlin’s power hitters. On the loss side, Ryan Vogelsong is en fuego, and the Marlins haven’t demonstrated convincing consistency in clearing the bases with runners in scoring position.

When the Nationals come to town,  the series might represent the end of May for the Marlins in more ways that just the end of the calendar month. The Fish have had a terrific month, moving from the bottom of the heap to within close reach of the top.  However, the Nationals are bringing a rotation that looks like all aces, featuring Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez. It will take our best hitting to beat this team. 2-1 Nationals on the series, with the one win as a squeaker.

The Marlins are coming off of an impressive 8-1 road trip, where they swept the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. The Marlins took two out of three games in their most recent series, against the Houston Astros.

Giancarlo Stanton returned to form for the Miami Marlins on their recent road trip. The team hopes he can carry that to teams 5-game home stand.. (Image: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE)

The New York Mets on the other hand have kept their hot start alive. The Mets were able to complete a three game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies and are now a season high five games above the .500 mark. David Wright has returned to David Wright status.

New York Mets (18-13) @ Miami Marlins (16-15), May 11, Game 32

NL East Standings

Stadium: Marlins Park

Five-year Run PF*: N/A
Five-year HR PF*: N/A
Stadium Dimensions:
Left field line—340 ft.
Left-center field—384 ft.
Center field—416 ft.
Right-center field—392 ft.
Right field line—335 ft.

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

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Who’s Hot

• Steve Cishek-  I know Ehsan would be upset if he was not first on my list! But seriously, this kid has been unbelievable to start the season. Through 13 games this season, Cishek has an eye popping 0.63 ERA with a 4-0 record and 15 strikeouts. He is the number one arm out of the pen Ozzie will call when the game is on the line. Cishek has bailed us out on a number of opportunities and has made it look very professional. Cishek has shown he has the talent to last 3-4 innings and be effective but has also shown the tangibles needed in a closer. Though I believe Cishek has future closer written all over him, I think Ozzie is content with his role right now in pitching in close games when the Marlins need him the most. With a funky delivery, good velocity, and some nice breaking pitches, there is A LOT to like when it comes to Steve Cishek.

Steve Cishek is congratulated by

 

• Omar Infante- Omar Infante remains to be the Marlins best hitter this season as he is always finding holes to get on base. While his power has seemed to die down, Infante has notched 16 extra base hits, a mark that leads the club and is near the top in the NL. Currently hitting .326, Infante looks very comfortable in the #5 hole and seems to be getting a healthy amount of fastballs to drive. It will be interesting to watch Infante’s progress as the year goes on and see if he remains to be a #5 hole hitter. Regardless, Infante has been the man offensively and is starting to capture the attention of the surrounding league around him.

• Giancarlo Stanton- Giancarlo Stanton is certainly not “on fire” but he is drastically improving from his slow start. Coming into May, Stanton had just one home run, and that was 2 days before the month ended. 6 games into the new month and Stanton now sits at 5 home runs as he has finally developed his long ball swing. His home runs aren’t looking cheap either, Stanton is absolutely crushing the ball making his round trips “no doubters”.  Not only is Stanton hitting the ball a country mile but he is also coming up with a good amount of base hits. In his last 10 games, Stanton is hitting .314 with 11 base hits, 10 RBIs and 5 walks. Though he is striking out a lot, he has shown better plate vision and seems to be taking pitches that he was swinging at earlier in the year. While his defense has been below average, he came up with a run saving diving leap that saved Nolasco from another run. Keep it up Giancarlo!

Giancarlo Stanton rounds the bases after hitting a home run. (Image: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE)

Who’s Not

• Heath Bell- I am really starting to dislike Heath Bell. As of today, Heath Bell has blown 4 out of his 7 opportunities, getting the loss in 3 of his games. Bell is sitting at a 11.42 ERA with just 6 strikeouts compared to 10 walks. While Bell seems to remain optimistic, Ozzie Guillen may be running out of patience. For the time being, the Marlins are going with a “closer by committee” strategy while letting Bell fix whatever has brought him to hell. Though I do believe Bell will eventually figure out his blunders, that 3 year 27 million dollar contract is not looking pretty as of today.

Heath Bell has labored through his time with the Marlins and has been removed as the closer for the time being. (Image: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE)

• Gaby Sanchez- Sanchez has been another major disappointment this season. Coming off an all-star awarding 2011 campaign, Sanchez enters May hitting .209 with just 1 home run and 20 strikeouts. Not only does Gaby strike out a lot, but he also grounds into a healthy amount of double plays. His plate discipline has looked horrible so far and his defense has been nothing to brag about. Gaby has looked pretty good the last couple of games and hopefully that will help him build some type of momentum. Hopefully..

Gaby Sanchez throws some water at himself in hopes of waking up his bat. (Image: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE)

There were a few other options that could have easily made this list. John Buck, Hanley Ramirez, and Josh Johnson have all been cold as of late. While they have been off, each have come up with a few clutch situations that have changed the outcome of some games. This cannot be said about Gaby and Bell as of late. Also, sorry for my lack of posting the past few weeks. I just finished school for my sophomore year and have a summer full of Marlin’s baseball ahead! Go Fish