Blogservations 06/19/09, Yankees 5, Marlins 1

It was a good thing I was not able to witness most of this game, as it was an absolute clunker on the part of the Marlins. The few innings I did get to see were mostly uneventful, as the Fish put up no resistance against the Yankees and their overwhelming majority of fans in Land Shark Stadium. Let’s get to the observations.

The Marlins offense continued to struggle.

Boy do the Marlins wish they were still in Toronto. Ever since leaving the Rogers Centre with an impressive three-game sweep during which the offense scored 24 runs, the club has played four games against the AL East elite and been hammered offensively. In the four games against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, the Marlins have scored just six runs while mustering 24 hits in 125 plate appearances. Worst yet, the Marlins have drawn a meager seven walks in those games, six of which came during their only good performance, the rain-shortened 2-1 win over Boston. Overall the club is putting up a miserable .203/.248/.339 line in those four games, capped by last night’s three-hit performance against an aging Andy Pettitte.

There isn’t much to be said in a situation like this. The team had an atrocious .157 BABIP, so maybe the team has hit a run of “hit ’em where they are,” but the club cannot continue to swing the bat this way. In front of a difficult “home” crowd, the team needs to put up some fight to get the fans alive, or even to have the fans show up.

Sean West ran into some difficulties.

I don’t think West’s outing was as bad as it looked, but the strike zone definitely showed some problems.

West was simply unable to keep the ball down and as a result got hit hard up in the zone. When he did get his breaking stuff down, the batters weren’t buying it, producing only two swinging strikes and two foul balls. The lack of consistency has troubled West throughout his time as a prospect, as that’s been the primary knock on his game. If he can’t locate better and throw more strikes (57% pitches for strikes), he’ll likely be the odd man out when Anibal Sanchez returns from the DL.

That being said, his peripherals looked solid. Striking out seven hitters in just four innings while only walking two was impressive for a pitcher who was missing the zone as badly as he was. He did also give up a homre run, but it was a good improvement over his previous performance, where he wasn’t able to miss any bats and walked four men. If he shows improved control, it certainly seems like he has the stuff to pitch in the majors.