Miami Marlins vs. St. Louis Cardinals: Three stories to watch

The last time the Miami Marlins looked like a playoff team, they did so at the expense of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Securing a walkoff victory in Andrew Cashner‘s first start in a Miami Marlins uniform, the Fish locked up a pivotal tie breaker over a fellow NL Wild Card contender and climbed to nine games over .500 on the season. August beckoned brightly.

However, the Marlins would go on to lose four of their next five series, never really recovering. Having lost four of five heading into this series, Marlins fans will breathe a lot easier if their team can right the ship and stop the bleeding here against the Redbirds.

Doing so will not be easy. The two teams are at opposite ends of the streak spectrum entering play Monday, with the Cardinals at 7-3 and the Fish at 3-7 over their last ten games.  Basically, the Cardinals are slowly starting to look like the team baseball fans expected to see right out of the gates, while the Marlins are sending everyone from the front office to the press pool scrambling for answers.

Smart money says Jeffrey Loria will be blamed at some point.

Will this be the series we look back to as a turning point for a season that is seemingly heading for the rocks? We’ll have a better idea once we navigate our way through these three stories to watch. Let’s dive in.