Two Big Steaks End As Miami Marlins Win Series

The last time the Miami Marlins wrapped up a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on this high of a note, it turned the entire season around.  For a few months anyway.

Of course, they also lost Dee Gordon for eighty games to that PED suspension, so let’s hope the team chooses not to emulate everything they built upon last April.

In any event, thanks to the best game of Jose Urena‘s career, the Marlins took the game and the series in a 3-0 victory Sunday afternoon at Marlins Park. 

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But it’s series like this that show the promise that this young corp has, and make you pine for a little more 2016 injury luck. The Marlins took six of seven against the Dodgers this year. And more to the point, the Marlins are one of just two teams in baseball outside of the NL West that actually had to face Clayton Kershaw twice this season. All the Fish did was go 2-0 against him. The club saw a better on paper opponent at their best, and wiped the floor with them.

These seven games also all featured Gordon, Justin Bour, Giancarlo Stanton, and Marcell Ozuna. Or at least had them available to play at any rate. That, of course, cannot be said of much of the past month, and the slate of games that saw the Marlins drop from probable playoff team to debatable .500 squad.

This series win puts an end to two huge streaks that perfectly punctuate just how swift and decisive a decline the Marlins underwent since sweeping the Pirates three weeks ago.

First off, let’s look at that Friday night victory. That Jose Fernandez emphatically defeated Kershaw, racking up fourteen strikeouts in the process, is impressive enough. But the victory itself, team-wise, was a milestone as well. Combined with Wednesday’s win, it marked the first time in fifteen games the team had been able to claim that they’d won a mere two games consecutively. That’s how few and far between success has been.

That last point likely steals some of the surprise thunder from the second streak that ended this weekend, but as baseball is a sport that’s all about series, it’s worth noting that Marlins had lost five straight series heading into Sunday’s finale. Urena’s heroics could not have come at a better time.

Next: Cashner's Milestone

Both slides were easily season highs for a Marlins team that set the franchise record for consecutive winning months to start the season before their August implosion. With just nineteen games remaining on the docket, let’s keep our fingers crossed the team can use this series win as a springboard.  Just like the last time they played.