Florida Marlins: Back On Top!

The Marlins have made their fifth consecutive win and second sweep in the past four series. Here we are mid-baseball season and the Marlins seem to be back on top (knock on wood). The Marlins started out the season playing like all stars then they just crumbled as their bullpen continued to fail them. Now, they are back, but can they hold on? The Marlins' five-game winning streak is their longest since the season opened. They have now moved two games above .500 (38-36) for the first time since May 10.

First let’s look at the good the bad and the, well, Uggla.

The good.

Hanley Ramirez! What can you say buy Go Hanley! In the past couple of weeks Hanley has hit 3 grand slams, 2 in the past week! On Thursday night Hanley slugged out a grand slam home run off of Oriole’s relief pitcher Chris Ray in the 8^thinning, essentially winning the game and sweeping the Oriole’s right out of South Florida. With that said, Hanley now joins Bobby Bonilla, Jeff Conine and Cody Ross as the fourth Marlin to have a single season “slam” record. With the All-Star week just around the corner we can expect Hanley’s momentum to keep going.

Cody Ross has also been doing very well for the Marlins. Last night Ross hit a two-run homer in the second inning off Baltimore's Rich Hill (3-2), making it his 13^th for the season.  Ross’ batting average is now at .279, he has 6 homers (3 in his last 3 starts) and 17 RBI’s in the past month. I think we will be seeing a lot more home runs and RBI’s from him before the season is out.

The Bad.

Pitching, pitching, pitching. The Marlins are truly struggling with pitching this year. Where to begin? Nunez is out with a hurt ankle, Lindstrom; don’t even go there with me….why they use Lindstrom and “save” in the same sentence is beyond me. The best the Marlins have right now are Chris Volstad and Josh Johnson. Volstad a mere 22 years of age will be a prime contender against the big boys. His career ERA is at 3.81 and he didn't give up more than four earned runs in any of his first 26 career starts. Volstad’s fastball may not be as strong as Johnson’s but he can still sink a pitch.

Uggla

What can you say about Uggla? He has his ups and downs, his highs and lows. When he’s up, he’s hitting good and slugging them out there but when he’s in a slump, the man is just awful. During critical times he can pull through and slug one deep. So far this season he has 15 homers but will his streak end abruptly after the All-Star break? We sure hope not, but Uggla seems to be focused and I’m confident him and the rest of the Marlins club will make it to the playoffs this year.

The Marlins are a young team but when they pull together and are on top of their game, as we saw in the beginning of the season, they are unstoppable. If their bullpen holds on, they will definitely be in the playoffs this year. You would think with the approval of their new ballpark, they would be playing their hearts out proving just why they deserve it.

Lilegend