Good Things Come To An End For Marlins

The Phillies officially eliminated the Marlins in the NL East race with their victory over the Brewers and a Marlins' loss to the Mets Sunday afternoon.

The Marlins might as well be indirectly eliminated in the NL Wild-Card race after a devastating weekend by losing the series to the Mets. They are five games out with the Rockies winning their series against the Cardinals this afternoon.

Five games is hard to make up with a final week to go. Not only the Marlins can't lose anymore, but the Rockies and the Braves need to lose all their games.

We envision that both scenarios will not happen.

It's fitting Chris Volstad ended the team's season by performing awful in one inning as usual Sunday. He cost them games in the standings throughout the season with his bad starts.

Volstad's struggles along with Andrew Miller exemplified the importance of the back end of the rotation. Fortunately, that issue could be resolved if Anibal Sanchez can stay healthy and Sean West take the next step instead of regressing like Volstad.

It was a great run though.

We talked about the Marlins growing up from being spoilers to hunters. They were not ready to be a playoff team, but the steps they made this year could go a long way next year.

Overall, it was a successful year. No one expected much out of them this year. The Marlins performed what the pundits expected them to do by winning around 80 or more games.

They never quit even under adversity.

We keep counting them out, but they managed to play themselves back in the race by going on a winning streak.

Unfortunately, deficiencies on the team glared on even when the team tried to overcome it. It's hard to get by when a team does that.

Most playoff teams don't have any weaknesses unless they play in an awful division like the AL Central.

The wild-card race comes down to the Braves and the Rockies.

The Marlins and the Braves face each other on Monday night, and everyone expected that series to be a make-or-break series for either team.

Instead, the Marlins will go back to their familiar roots of being a spoiler.

The spoiler role doesn't have to be a bad thing in that sense. It's important for the Marlins to send a message to the Braves that they are a team to reckon with next year.

The Braves are a great team, and they will be fighting for the division or the wild-card race next season so the Marlins need to set a tone by playing well and attempting to win the series or all three.

The Marlins won 83 games so far, but they should try to get at least 86 or 87 wins to finish the year.

That's what will make experts notice about the team for next season.

It shows a team's immaturity if they pack it in now that they are out of it. The Marlins don't need that stigma attached to them.

Expect the Marlins to play well against the Braves and the Phillies in the final week of the season. They love to play against the elite teams, and they do well against them.

Unfortunately, it won't help them get back in the race other than to make it look respectable in the standings by finishing the year two or three games out in the wild-card standings.

Dan Uggla said it best about the season being a lost opportunity after Sunday's game.

It's never a good feeling to play out the season, and that's where the Marlins are now.