Marlins Offense Shines As They Defeat The Astros

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

What team is this? In another shocking display of offense, the Miami Marlins pounded out 18 hits en route to an 8-1 victory over the Houston Astros at Roger Dean Stadium. The victory extends Miami to a National League best 13-7 record so far this spring. The Marlins offense was again led by Giancarlo Stanton who hit another 3 run home run, this one coming in the first inning.

While the Marlins offense shows off their muscle, the true story continues to be their pitching. Jacob Turner turned in a solid performance going 5 innings and allowing only 2 hits and 1 unearned run, striking out 3. Steve Cishek, Dan Jennings, and A.J. Ramos combined for the final 4 innings and only allowed 1 hit between them. Houston was only able to muster 3 hits on the afternoon.

After allowing Houston to jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the top half of the first, The Marlins quickly answered with a Jake Marisnick single, a Donovan Solano bunt single, and then the Stanton home run. The Marlins were just getting started as they used a 4-run second inning to really blow the game open, highlighted by a Casey McGehee double with the bases loaded that gave him 3 RBI’s on the day.

Marisnick was again stellar this afternoon, going 3-5 with 2 runs scored. He pushes his average to .375 and is making it more and more difficult for the front office not to give him the nod in center field on opening day. Of course I believe that Miami views Marisnick as the center fielder of the future, but Marisnick seems intent on that future being now. It will be interesting to see what Miami chooses to do with both Marisnick and Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna has struggled all spring and might be feeling the pressure with Marisnick’s stellar play.

Miami gets the day off tomorrow before facing the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. St. Louis will get another look at the phenom Jose Fernandez, as he will take the mound and look to extend his sparkling spring numbers so far. Look for many of Miami’s regulars to get the start that day as they will be coming off of an off day and it may give us insight into how the Marlins will look on opening day.