Marlins-Rays: Florida Lost This Game When It Was Tied

Fredi Gonzalez described last night's contest between the Marlins and Rays as the battle of the bullpens, and predictably, we knew what the ending was going to be like.

The Marlins bullpen would find a way to lose the game, and that's what happened in the ninth inning when the Rays scored the game-winning run.

To be fair, the Marlins pen did all they could to match up with the Rays relievers, but in the end, the Rays have more talent in their relief corps than the Marlins do.

If anyone wants to pinpoint how the Marlins lost this game, go back to the fifth inning when the Rays tied the game at 2.

Chris Volstad gave up couple of base hits to start the inning, and then when Ross Gload could not tag B.J. Upton for an out, Jason Bartlett (he scored the game-winning run) scored the tying run.

The game was lost there because there was no way the Marlins relievers were going to keep a scoreless inning for so long especially with a depleted bullpen.

It's hard to blame it on Volstad, who pitched well in this contest even though he threw 116 pitches.

The hitters have to give their starters some help. When there are runners on base, the hitters can't leave their runners stranded like they have done in this series.

It's hard for starters to go pitch in games where they have to be perfect every time out with the idea run support is going to rare, and that's what Volstad had to deal with tonight.

That's what makes the Marlins lineup so frustrating to watch at times when they are great like they were in the Orioles series, and then they show their futility the last two nights.

More than ever, the hitters have to do everything possible to score more runs so that Gonzalez does not have to trot out reliever after reliever in a tight contest late in the game.

It's easy to go blame Burke Badenhop for losing this game, but he should have never been in this position of pitching in a tied game in the ninth.

The Marlins should have added couple of more runs early in the game when Scott Kazmir was giving up hits.

That was the turning point of the game, not what happened in the ninth inning.