The Miami Marlins took advantage of their last home stand, in a potential playoff preview

The Miami Marlins took two of three games this weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers in their final home stand.  The Marlins have two more series left in the season and will be on the road for both.  As it stands now, the Marlins are one game out of the last spot in the Wild Card and both teams ahead of them sit at 82 wins with the Marlins at 81.  

The Marlins have six games left to make a statement and they will have to continue their solid play as of late.  The Marlins bested the Brewers on Sunday 6-1 and Saturday 5-4, which was a good response to their blowout loss on Friday’s bullpen game.  The Marlins fan base showed out this weekend, with Friday being above average at just shy of 16,000 in attendance.  Saturday fans came out en mass with almost 24,000 fans and 17,500 on Sunday, likely fewer due to the home Dolphins game.  

If the Marlins can slide into the last Wild Card spot then they will almost certainly face the Brewers in the first round of the playoffs.  If that happens the series will be an exciting one as both teams won two or three at home and lost on the road.  The Marlins would not have any home field advantage throughout the playoffs so they will have to learn to produce on the road if they hope to make it anywhere.  

The Brewers scored three, two, and four at home in addition to one twelve run blowout.   On the road they also had one blowout win of 16-1 but lost two scoring one and four.  As it were, the Marlins pitching staff did a good job holding the Brewers offense at bay excepting the few blowouts.   If the Marlins offense can step it up in the playoffs they will have a good shot but to make it there they will have to overcome a lack of pitching with two top pitchers out for the season.  Marlins bats need to rise to the occasion of bullpen games and produce enough runs to give some relief and take tension off of non-starters.