Marlins in Sole Possession of 1st Place in the NL East

With a win last night the Marlins are now one game over .500 for the first time since April 11, 2007, and also in sole possession of 1st place in the NL East. Although not a huge feat to have more wins than losses only five games in, it is an encouraging site for most fish fans. Couple the fact that our team has only played o.k. at best, this gives us baseball fans in Miami something to be happy about.

Last night's game is one that shows how potent the Marlins can be if they can get some good starting pitching. Mark Hendrickson only went 5 1/3 innings but commanded all his pitches and looked sharp even with runners on base. The sole earned run he allowed came in 4th inning after allowing a lead off double by Jason Bay, a walk to Xavier Nady, and then a groundout to Paulino which would allow Bay to score. Hendrickson would give way to the bullpen in the sixth, and the bullpen looked great. The 'pen, lead by Justin Miller, pitched 3 2/3 allowing 0 runs, 4hits, while striking out 4 Pirates.

Offensively the Marlins continued their trend of scoring most of their runs via the homerun, and it started with the 2nd pitch that Maholm threw. Hanley Ramirez took Maholm's second delivery and deposited it over the left field wall for a lead off homerun, his 16th of his career (team record). The Marlins offense after that home run looked awful, as they helped Maholm set a new career high for strikeouts in a game, nine. The offense continued to sputter until the fifth inning, when Treanor reached on an infiled single, Hanley via a hit by pitch, and Uggla on a walk; this setup a bases loaded, two out situation for Mike Jacobs. Jacobs didn't disappoint driving a hanging slider over the right field wall for his 1st career grand slam, one night after hitting his first career walk off homerun.

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