It was a hug win for the Florida Marlins as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies on Wedneday afternoon. The 7-3 victory for the Marlins was the second straight win for the fish against the Phillies and it a great things to see especially on the road. The marlins appear to be acting in the spoiler role right know as they took two out of three games from the Phillies who are in the divisional race as well as the wild card race.

The marlins blew the game wide open with three runs in the top of the ninth inning when Dan Uggla had a two run double and then he was knocked in on a single by Wes Helms. Josh Willingham had a rbi ground rule double in the eighth inning as well. Luis Gonzalez added a two run home run in the game while Ricky Nolasco contributed with an rbi of his own.

Nolasco threw a pretty good game as he pitched 7 2/3 innings. He allowed seven hits and three runs while striking out eight Phillies. Arthur Rhodes and Matt Lindstrom pitched in relief to finish off the phillies.

Great win for the Marlins and now they will be off on Thursday before starting up a weekend series with the Washington Nationals.

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The Florida Marlins once again lost to the visiting St. Lous Cardinals. On Thursday it was a 3-0 loss as Todd Wellemeyer shut down the Marlins offense and limited them to only four hits on the night. You can’t beat a team with only four hits in most cases, and that was the case for the Fish on Thursday night.

Scott Olsen tossed seven innings and gave up ten hits and all three runs to take the loss. Olsen struckout six batters but also gave up one two run home run. Olsen had problems with Ryan Ludwick who knocked in all three Cardinals runs. Logan Kensing threw the final two innings of the game and held the Cardinals to the three runs so he did a good job.

Luis Gonzalez, Jorge Cantu, Wes Helms, and Dan Uggla all had one hit at the plate but that was it for the entire team. Talk about struggling at the plate against a pitcher that you should be able to score atleast a couple of runs off each time out there. Hopefully the bats come around this weekend when the fish take on the red hot Chicago Cubs.

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The Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs kicked off a four game series on Thursday night and the Marlins were doubled up on the scoreboard.  The Cubs defeated the fish by the score of 6-3.  The Marlins sure had their chances in the 8th and 9th innings but were only able to push across one run.

Scott Olsen took the loss for the Marlins and is now 6-5 on the year.  Olsen gave up six runs on seven hits in the game.  Olsen ran into trouble in the 5th inning when the Cubs scored four runs while loading the bases.  Olsen gave up solo home runs to Ronny Cedeno and Henry Blanco in the game as well.

Matt Lindstrom and Joe Nelson held the Cubs down in the 7th and 8th innings as they pitched good out of the bullpen.

Hanley Ramirez got the Marlins on the scoreboard in the 3rd inning when he took Carlos Zambrano deep for a two run home run.  At that point in the game the Marlins were ahead 2-0 however they wouldn’t score again until the 8th inning when Luis Gonzalez had a rbi sac fly to right field and Alfredo Amezaga scored.  The Marlins had the bases loaded late in the game but they were unable to score any runs.  The offense just coudln’t come up with the big hit when they needed it.

Now they will turn right back around and face the Cubs again on Friday afternoon.  Josh Johnson wil face off against Ryan Dempster.  This could be a tough game for the fish as Dempster throws the ball pretty good at Wrigley Field.  Marlins Baseball Blog

The Florida Marlins got their butts handed to them on Wednesday night as they were blown out by the Atlanta Braves 8-3.  The Marlins did not score until the 9th inning when Luis Gonzalez hit a three run home run to get the Marlins on the scoreboard.

Ricky Nolasco had a night that he does not want to remember.  He allowed eight hits and five runs while only pitching five innings. Nolasco took the loss for the fish and is now 10-6 on the season.  Ryan Tucket came into the game after Nolasco left and he gave up four more runs in only 2 1/3 innings.

The Marlins will now travel to Chicago to take on the Cubs for the next four days.  The Cubs are struggling but I can see the Marlins having a lot of troubles in Chicago.  What do the Marlins fans think?

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Some people subscribe to the theory that these heartbreaking defeats where the team battles and battles, but finally loses, are good for a team. They say these kind of losses build “character”. Well, if that is true, then the Florida Marlins lead all of major league baseball in character. Too bad you can’t trade in some of this character for a game or two in the standings. The division leading Phillies have hit a rough patch of their own, losing three straight, but once again, Florida fails to capitalize. Getting back to these heartbreaking, character building losses, it seems that The Fish follow the same formula in every one. First the starting pitcher puts them in a nice hole, the way Mark Hendrickson did last night, surrendering four runs in the third. Step two is the comeback phase, usually accomplished via the home run, provided last night by Hanley Ramirez, Jeremy Hermida, and done twice by Dan Uggla, giving him 23 for the year. The comeback phase in these “Signature Losses” is done bit by bit, often requiring some ninth inning HR heroics, as was the case yesterday; Uggla’s second HR tied the game and sent it into extra innings. And of course, none of these losses would be complete without a really bad ending in which the Fish basically beat themselves. Sometimes it’s the bullpen that implodes with our relievers helping out the other team by doing things like walking the lead off man, or walking the pitcher, or throwing a wild pitch or two and getting so flustered that they just start serving fastballs right down the middle of the plate. Sometimes the bullpen is fine, but ERRORS are the reason we lose these types of games, as was the case last night. Bottom of the eleventh inning Eric Chavez, the A’s third baseman, launches a deep fly to left off Doug Waechter, our fifth pitcher. The ball is well hit, but it’s not going out. Off the wall maybe? No, Luis Gonzalez has plenty of room with his back against the wall and all he has to is reach up and catch it. He doesn’t even have to jump. So he raises his hand, the ball nestles nicely in the pocket of his glove and… and it pops out and hits the ground. Chavez ends up at second base and some guy called Kurt Suzuki promptly delivers the walk off hit. The Marlins have had so many of these kinds of losses this year that it’s getting to be like they’re actors following a script. And it’s a great script, very entertaining and all, complete with heroes and unfortunately, a goat or two, but it has a lousy ending; another Marlins loss.

I’m not one of those guys who believes in that losing builds character nonsense. The only thing these losses build is a track record of losing these type of “close and late” games. Far from building character, these losses are devastating to the psyche of teams, especially young teams like the Marlins. Late in the game or in extra innings a team that loses a lot of these types of games starts pressing. It’s like every guy on the field is thinking it, even subconsciously: how are we gonna blow it tonight? And : I sure hope I ain’t The Goat tonight, the guy who commits the error, or issues the walk that causes us to lose THIS game. Once teams start thinking like that, forget about it, they’re going to KEEP losing those kinds of games. Sure, looking at last night’s loss there are some positives we can take from the way the team battled back, never quit, kept on plugging away, etc., etc. Back in April & May when we had games like this and nobody really thought this team was going to be a serious contender, those types of pats on the back, those attempts to find some positives from these losses were acceptable. But not any more; not now. Not with the Marlins in a genuine pennant race. Now, there ARE NO positives to take from these kinds of losses. In fact there are some big negatives that they need to fix and quick. We have to find out why we make these kinds of errors and issue lead off walks and stuff like that in these kinds of close games. We need to figure out how to CLOSE THE DEAL in these games, not just make these great comebacks and then lose. Real contenders find a way to WIN these kinds of games; PRETENDERS find ways to lose them.

The Florida Marlins had an awesome comeback in the top of the ninth inning as they came back from a 6-0 defecit to tie the game at 6-6.  It wasn’t enough however as the Marlins still lost the game in ten innings to the Cincinnati Reds by the score of 7-6.

Renyel Pinto gave up a rbi single in the tenth inning to take the loss for the Marlins.  None of the Marlins pitchers had that good of a night as Ricky Nolasco gave up two runs, Logan Kensing gave up one run, Justin Miller gave up three runs.

At the plate for the Marlins, Cody Ross had the big hit which was a three run home run in the ninth inning that tied the game.   Matt Treanor had two rbi and Luis Gonzalez had one rbi.

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The Florida Marlins battled back with three runs in the eighth inning but they needed atleast one more to extend the game as they went onto lose to the Cincinnati Reds 8-7.  I’ll give the team credit for coming back, they just needed one more big hit to take the lead, they just didn’t get it done tonight.

Hanley Ramirez, Jeremy Hermida, and Dan Uggla all hit home runs in the game.  All three of the home runs were solo shots however.  Besides those three rbi’s for the Marlins, Luis Gonzalez and Mike Rabelo also had one rbi each in the game.

Taylor Tankersley took the loss which dropped his record to 0-1 on the season.  Tankersley was pitching in relief of starting pitcher Burke Badenhop who threw six innings.  Badenhop left the game after giving up six hits and four runs.  Three of the four runs were earned.

With the loss, the Marlins dropped to to 23-15 on the season.  Marlins Blog

The Florida Marlins got a great performance by Scott Olson who threw a complete game two hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.  The Marlins went onto beat the Brewers 3-0 in the game and improve to 18-14 on the season.

Olson threw all nine inning and struck out eight batters while walking four batters.  Great job my Olson and it saved the Marlins bullpen from having to come into the game and gets them an extra night of rest.

Luis Gonzalez got the Marlins scoring started in the second inning with a RBI single and then Mike Jacobs had a two run home run in the third inning.  That was all the scoring the Marlins needed as Olson was on fire on the mound.

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The Florida Marlins lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-6 on Tuesday night after the Dodgers broke a  6-6 tie in the ninth inning with a RBI single by Jeff Kent.  It was a tough loss for the Marlins as they dropped to 15-11 on the season.

Starting pitcher Andrew Miller got roughed up in only three innings of action.  Nine hits and six runs later Miller was out of the game as it made it a long night for the Marlins bullpen.  Doug Waechter and Renyel Pinto both pitched two scoreless innings before Kevin Gregg gave up the game winning hit to Kent.  Gregg picked up the loss and is now 3-1 on the season.

Jeremy Hermida had two RBI for the Marlins in the game.  Dan Uggla provided a solo home run to finish with one RBI.  Jorge Cantu, Luis Gonzalez, and Mike Rabelo all had one RBI as well.

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Luis Gonzalez and the Florida Marlins have agreed on a one year contract that will be worth $2 million in guranteed money.  Gonzalez could also earn another million dollars with incentives.  I really doube he will however as the Marlins are pretty well stocked up in the outfield positions.

I don’t know why the Marlins signed Gonzalez other then to to support some of the younger players.  Gonzalez is at the end of his career, and I think this will be his last stop in baseball.  I just don’t see him having much value with the Marlins.

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