Miami Marlins Losing Streak Hardly Historic…Yet

The Miami Marlins enter tonight’s four-game series against the Atlanta Braves on a six-game losing streak.

In trying to avoid their seventh straight loss, maybe the Miami Marlins could possibly string a few wins together and finish with fewer than 100 losses. They’ll need to win at least 21 of their final 49 games to do so, a goal that doesn’t seem impossible.

The Miami Marlins have lost seven-in-a-row already this season, in early May. During that stretch, from May 7th through the 15th, Miami was outscored 32-to-8. The streak ended with consecutive shutout losses to the Tampa Bay Rays, who ended up sweeping the Marlins with another two victories late last week.

Of course, the Marlins busted up that streak by sweeping the New York Mets and the Detroit Tigers, including two shutouts of the Mets and winning six straight overall. Maybe lightning can strike twice here and a win tonight leads to another nice streak.

If the Marlins do lose tonight, they’ll still have a way to go before they threaten the franchise record of 11 straight losses, “accomplished” three times, most recently in 2011.

Then known as the Florida Marlins, our boys entered June with a 31-22 record, which at the time was good enough for the wild card berth. They then completely unraveled, first losing eight-in-a-row to open the month, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4, then losing 11-in-a-row.

The 2011 Miami Marlins’ .050 20-game winning percentage was punctuated with near-misses. 10 of the games were lost by just one run, and another three were lost by three-or-less. Contrasted with the current run, during which they’ve been outscored 38-to-16, they were positively electric despite their deplorable bottom line.

The Miami Marlins will entrust the current rotation to break the trend. Elieser Hernandez (1-4, 5.66), Caleb Smith (7-5, 3.35), all-star Sandy Alcantara (4-10, 4.50), and Hector Noesi (0-1, 9.00) will each have their shot at Atlanta.

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The Marlins have their work cut out for them. The Braves are running away with the tough National League Eastern Division with a 68-48 record, six games ahead of the second-place Washington Nationals. In fact, excepting Miami, the NL East has everyone above .500. Even the New York Mets, who have won 13 of their last 14 games, sit in fourth place at 59-56.

With a mark of 42-71, the Miami Marlins can find solace in the improved look of their minor league feeder system, recently ranked fourth in baseball by Baseball America. It’s a stark contrast to the state of the affiliate system under Jeffrey Loria. Poor deals, disinterest, and generally lousy decision-making had led to the system being considered the worst in baseball for two years running. Under Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter, it’s starting to look a lot better.

And that’s all we can really hope for in 2019: a better look for next year and onward. In the meantime, keep it here to keep up with the Miami Marlins. Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our daily newsletter.