Can the Miami Marlins still make the playoffs?

The Miami Marlins just lost a series to the San Francisco Giants, who hold the final playoff spot in the NL. It wasn’t a sweep, San Francisco won two out of three games, but it makes sense to wonder how bad things are now for The Fish. We are 22-30 and 13.0 games out of first place in the NL East and 6.5 games out of the final NL Wild Card spot. Is there still hope?

The Miami Marlins still have a shot at the playoffs.

I talked about this in the past but the Miami Marlins are underperforming this season and aren’t as bad as the record indicates. Our Pythagorean W-L record is 27-25. This is obviously a much better record and would put The Fish at only two games behind the 29-24 San Francisco Giants. Of course Pythagorean W-L records are just records that teams “should” have not ones that they actually have.

Can the Miami Marlins make up the 6.5 game difference? The two teams don’t play any more games against each other, but the San Francisco Giants are in the tough NL West and still have a whole 27 games against the currently 35-19 Los Angeles Dodgers and 33-21 San Diego Padres. It’s hard to believe that San Francisco will win most of those games.

The Miami Marlins have some tough games ahead as well: 3 games against the Houston Astros, 4 games against the Milwaukee Brewers, 19 games against the New York Mets, 7 games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and 3 games against the San Diego Padres immediately come to mind. That’s not the easiest schedule, but it’s certainly still doable.

It’s important to remember that injuries take place (not that they’re ever a good thing), declines and there is some randomness in performance, so there is no reason to think that something good can’t happen for The Fish. The season is not even half-way through and bigger deficits have been overcome. Improvements can also be on the horizon externally and internally as well.

The Miami Marlins are not the favorites to make the playoffs right now. That said, The Fish are underperforming and the season is still young. There is still time to turn things around and make the playoffs. The team needs our support so let’s give it. #JuntosMiami!