Pitching Performance like this Won't Cut it for Marlins

The New York Yankees have struggled against pitchers they are not familiar with in recent years, and this year is no different. The Marlins figured they had a chance to win by trotting out Sean West, who has made only a few major league starts.

It did not work out that way at all. West had nothing with his pitches, and predictably, the Yankees made him pay for his mistakes en route to a 5-1 victory over the Marlins on Friday night at Land Shark Stadium.

It was like watching batting practice when West was on the mound. The Yankees were able to feast on West's pitches, which had no movement whatsoever, not to mention his pitches were way up in the strike zone, and it was enough to get many hits and runs to start the game, and the team never looked back.

When a rookie pitcher like West is facing the Yankees, and he is getting beaten up the way he did, it's a lesson for a pitcher to get better by learning from what he did wrong. Often times, it's easy to learn when a pitcher pitched a bad game with the idea his mechanics can be straightened out.

West is not the only Marlin that has gone through those outings this season. It's every starter on the Marlins' starting rotation who often flash good stuff on the mound yet they get knocked around. This is why they have been a mediocre team to date so far.

It's something they have to figure it out. The Marlins starters tend to struggle often in the beginning, and it makes it hard for the Marlins to come back and win. They need to set the tone for the Marlins to even win games especially with the offense scuffling.

It's a mystery to why this is happening. Everyone was high on the Marlins this season because of their starting pitching, but since May they have been unwatchable.

Fortunately, the division and the league in general is not strong enough so the Marlins have plenty of time to recover, and the hope is the starters are off to a great run starting with the second half of the season that is coming up soon.

This can't continue to go on forever, and it's about time the starters start giving out quality starts when they are out there on a consistent basis.

Night like this can't happen anymore.