Marlins: Good Road Trip but More Work Left to Be Done

The Marlins did not start the post-All-Star break well as the Phillies outclassed them in the three games they lost at Land Shark Stadium.

With the way the Marlins' starters pitched along with their inability to do well in situational hitting, this road trip could have been bad, but the Marlins proved this critic wrong by doing well out on the West Coast trip by sweeping the Padres and taking two of three against the Dodgers.

For a team that plays in the Eastern Time zone to then go out to the West Coast to play ball, that's hard to do. The athletes are not used to playing at a different time so it takes time to recover.

It's not easy to play or win out on the West Coast for that type of team so the Marlins deserved to be commended for their accomplishment.

The Marlins needed this successful trip to get back on track after what took place last weekend, and this should set themselves well with a crucial three-game set against the Braves starting Tuesday.

Their pitching and their hitting stood out on this trip for the Fish.

Ricky Nolasco and Josh Johnson did well as always, but the story of this trip was Marlins discovering a third starter in Rick VandenHurk, who did well against the Padres and Dodgers.

VandenHurk showed he can pitch inside, and he can throw strikes to get his outs. He displayed a good ability of pitching well under duress when he had men on base.

He gave them good innings, and to do well against a good hitting team in the Dodgers should bode real well for his confidence.

Chris Volstad showed his efficiency in his performance in his two starts this week, and the team hopes he knows how to maintain his grip on his sinker for him to have success.

We have seen his potential this year, and now the hope is that he runs off many more starts.

The bullpen did a great job of maintaining leads and closing out games, and they have been doing this since the first week of July.

The Marlins stepped up in situational hitting in this trip. They stranded many men on base, but at least they were able to cash in when it mattered late in the game as we saw in the first game of the Padres' series, and then in the Dodgers' series.

What the Marlins need is a hot bat from Chris Coghlan and Jeremy Hermida down the stretch. The two can swing the ball well, but it comes down to consistency with them as we have seen two of them go through a stretch of slumps.

This team proved they have potential to be a good team, but it's about them executing the fundamentals, and they did that in this trip with their pitching, offense and defense.

Before the Marlins can consider themselves a good team, they need to sustain for a longer period of time. This performance will mean nothing if they play bad in this homestand.

This trip was encouraging, but we need to see more.