The Marlins lost the final game of a grueling 9 game road trip, 7-1 to Justin Duchscherer and the Oakland A’s. Andrew Miller suffered the loss to see his record fall to 5-6, but the real culprit was The Marlins’ porous defense which set the stage for most of the A’s runs. A booted ball by Wes Helms at 3rd base and a nightmarish game behind the plate by Mike Rabelo helped the A’s get to Miller early, and Duchscherer did the rest, holding the potent Marlin’s offense to just one run in 7 2/3 innings.

The game started well enough for The Fish with Jeremy Hermida hitting his eighth HR in the first inning, but it was all down hill from there. The A’s tied the game in the bottom of the first helped by a Wes Helms boot of a DP grounder. Then in the bottom of the third, all the wheels came off for Miller & the Marlins. The A’s scored four times without any real good hits, taking advantage of a passed ball by Rabelo, and then a brain lock by the Marlins catcher on a first to home double play ball. Marlins first baseman Jorge Cantu fielded a grounder, stepped on first and threw home to Rabelo who had plenty of time to tag the runner coming in from third. But he thought the force play was in effect, so he merely stepped on the plate and did not tag the runner. The run scored, and the following A’s batter blooped a lazy pop up behind 1st base that scored two more runs, and you could have shut your TV off right there. I wish I had done so; that way I would have missed another ineffective relief performance by Matt Lindstrom and Logan Kensing later in the game.

At any rate, the Fish end the road trip with a 4-5 record and actually picked up ground on the Phillies, who lost again, their fifth straight defeat. The Marlins are just one game out of first place as they head home to start a three game series Tuesday with Tampa Bay.

I wasn’t sure what my title was going to be, this one or “Gregg Blows Another One”. The Florida Marlins got 7 gutty innings from Ricky Nolasco and a ninth inning 3 run double from Dan Uggla to defeat Oakland and take game two of a three game set. But they needed a game saving diving stop at first base by Jorge Cantu to preserve the win.

Nolasco was his usual solid self, allowing three runs on seven hits over seven innings and giving his team a chance to win. But it was Renyel Pinto who got the win by pitching a scoreless eighth before turning it over to closer Kevin Gregg. The Marlins had just scored three times in the top of the ninth, a three run double to left by Dan Uggla, who the A’s have got to be sick of, being the key hit. As they have done seemingly all year, the Marlins battled back from behind in this game, getting a key HR once again, this time by their own Toy Cannon, Cody Ross. Ross’ homer in the top of the eighth tied the game at 3-3.

So the stage was set for Kevin Gregg in the bottom of the ninth to come in and nail down the win. Back in the late 70s, the Baltimore Orioles had a relief pitcher named Don Stanhouse. Earl Weaver called him “Full Pack” because he’d go through a full pack of cigarettes up in the tunnel behind the dugout, sweating out a Stanhouse save. He did get the save more often than not, but it was never easy. Kevin Gregg is becoming the Marlins’ Stanhouse, as it seems his every save is an adventure. Last night was a good example. Given a three run lead, Gregg gave up some scratch hits and some walks, and suddenly it was bases loaded, 6-4, as the As had already plated one run, and Gregg facing Ryan Sweeney. Sweeney hit a sharp grounder down the fist baseline headed for the right field corner, but Jorge Cantu dived, made the stop and the toss to Gregg covering for the final out.

The win tonight, coupled with the Phillies fourth straight loss, leaves the Marlins just one game out in the eastern division of the National League. They conclude the road trip tomorrow.

And Bob Gibson, and Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, also never played even one major league regular season game in Miami. And that’s a shame, but until the Florida Marlins joined the National League in 1993, Miami baseball fans were deprived of seeing these great players live unless they went out of town. If you lived in New york you could say things like “I saw Joe DiMaggio in his prime, or I was there the night Tom Seaver lost that no hitter in the ninth versus the Cubs”. Trust me, as a former New Yorker, I know about things like that, and I know how much those types of memories mean to real baseball fans. Dads taking their kids to the game to watch the same team that their Dads once took them too; that’s how baseball tradition is built.

Well, we Marlins fans have the chance to build a tradition like that, but we are missing the boat. There is a young team playing right now at Dolphins Stadium that is in the process of doing  some legendary things. A team with a 21 million dollar payroll, easily the lowest in baseball, is confounding all the experts and winning over the critics by contending for a pennant in 2008. And I’m not saying there are Hall of Famers like Ruth and aaron on this team, but then again, you never know. There are certainly some individula players with the potential to some day make it to Cooperstown. One day your son can take his son to the game and say “grandpa used to take me to see the Marlins games when I was your age. I saw Hanley Ramirez when he just came up to the big leagues”.

But too many of you Marlins fans are missing out. You are choosing to watch the games on TV or listen on the radio, rather than come out to the games. And that’s a damn shame. If this team ends up making the playoffs with a 21 million dollar payroll that will be a historical achievement. An achievement that should NOT happen before thousands of empty seats! It’s time to stop making excuses, Miami. Time to stop crying about Wayne’s betrayal and his fire sale of 1998, time to stop moaning about the weather, and making excuse after excuse as to why you just can’t make it out to the stadium to see one of the best baseball stories of ALL TIME, the exciting young team with the 21 million dollar payroll.

We baseball fans are always bemoaning the lack of tradition here in Miami as opposed to Boston, New York, or Chicago. Well, tradition doesn’t just APPEAR somewhere out of the clear blue sky. People MAKE tradition, and there is no better time than now to start building a great baseball tradition here in Miami. It starts with all of us. Go to a game. Better yet, go to a few games. Tell your co workers to go. Better yet, get a group of your co workers together and go with them. Take your girlfriend to a game. Or your boyfriend. Something magical is going on this summer at Dolphins Stadium. Baseball history might very well be in the process of being made. Don’t sit this one out!

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 defeated the Seattle Mariners 8-3 Wednesday night, taking two out of three games against the AL West club. As they have done all season long, the Marlins used the long ball to power the team to victory, getting two run HRs from Mike Jacobs, his 17th, and Dan Uggla, his 21st. Rookie right hander Ryan Tucker picked up the win, his second in three starts. The win, combined  with a Philadelphia Phillies  loss to the Boston Red Sox, pulled The Fish to within two games of the Eastern Division lead.

Tucker gave the Marlins a solid six inning start, giving up two earned runs on seven hits, striking out four. He featured a lively fastball in the mid nineties, and had good command. He only walked two batters, which was very encouraging indeed, considering the control problems which have periodically plagued Marlins pitchers this year. Suddenly the Marlins’ pitching staff seems to be jelling into a formidable, if still a bit inconsistent, unit. The team that started the season with more question marks than answers, is now starting to evolve into one of the most promising young pitching staffs in the league. Tonight’s performance by Tucker follows another impressive start by Andrew Miller on Monday, giving the Marlins a potent lefty-righty rookie punch. Both youngsters feature electric arms that can bring the heat at 96 mph, accompanied by good breaking pitches. The talent is obvious; the only question was whether they can consistently show the command of the strike zone needed to win games in the major leagues. In addition to these two phenoms, the starting staff has gotten good performances from the “old men” of the staff, Scott Olsen, 24, and Ricky Nolasco, 25, who has emerged surprisingly as the team’s stopper this year. If this young staff continues to perform at this level, the Marlins have to be considered favorites to win the Eastern Division. Admittedly that’s a big “if” because the rookies are still learning how to pitch at the major league level, but the talent is there, and that talent, combined with a Marlins offense that bludgeons the opposition nightly under a  barrage of home runs, could carry this team to victory down the stretch. In baseball, it all begins and ends with pitching, and this young pitching staff is starting to come around. They will be getting a boost soon with the return of Josh Johnson and maybe Anibal Sanchez as well, so the prospects certainly are bright.

In addition to the good start from Tucker and the almost routine long ball display by the offense, the Marlins’ defense played an error free game, and the bullpen closed it out, but not before closer Kevin Gregg got everyone nervous again in the ninth inning. If the Marlins are to contend down the stretch, it is going to take more than just home runs and good performances by the starting pitchers. They are going to have to have more games with a big fat “0″ under the “E” on the scoreboard, and Gregg and the rest of the bullpen are going to have to tighten up their act as well. The Marlins slugging has enabled them to mostly overcome their suspect fielding this year, and the bullpen has been wildly inconsistent. Gregg in particular has been a 9th inning cardiac arrest in progress; even when he does manage to get the save he does so the hard way, walking batters, giving up hits, and in general making Marlins fans sweat every last out. Memo to Kevin: a one two three ninth inning is ok, you know. Every game does NOT need a dramatic ending.

Anyway, two out of three from Seattle is very good, and now The Fish are off to Oakland for three games starting Friday.

The Florida Marlins blew their one run lead in the top of the ninth inning but then came back in the bottom of the ninth inning as Dan Uggla hit another walk off home run.  This time it was a walk off grand slam that gave the Marlins a 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Before Uggla’s grand slam (his 19th home run of the season), the Marlins other two runs came off the bat of Jorge Cantu who hit solo home runs in the first and seventh innings.  I would have liked to see more production for other guys in the lineup but sometimes that is just how things go in baseball.

Andrew Miller pitched seven innings and gave up four hits and one run as he started the game for the Marlins.  It was a very good outing for the young pitcher even though he got the no decision in the game.  Justin Miller tossed a scoreless eighth inning before Kevin Gregg was called in to close out the game.  However Gregg gave up a run and the game was tied 2-2 heading into the bottom of the inning.  Gregg blew the save, but actually picked up the win as the Marlins scored in the bottom of the inning.

The Marlins will be going for the three game sweep on Thursday night as Scott Olsen will get the start on the mound against the Phillies.

Marlins Blog

The Florida Marlins beat the Arizona Diamondbacks by the score of 4-0 on Thursday night and completed a three game sweep of the Diamondbacks.  Now that was a great sweep for the Marlins who are playing some good baseball right now.

Andrew Miller improved his record to 5-3 on season as he picked up the win for the Marlins.  Miller tossed seven innings while only giving up five hits.  Logan Kensing and Justin Miller both tossed a inning each without allowing a run.

Jorge Cantu and Wes Helms led the Marlins with two rbi each in the game.  Cantu had a rbi ground out in the first inning and then a rbi single in the seventh inning.  Helms got his rbi in the seventh inning on a rbi double.

Marlins Blog

The Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks opened up a three game series on Tueday night and if the other two games are as good as the first, everyone is going to be in for an exciting time!  The Marlins held on to beat the Diamondbacks by a score of 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Mark Hendrickson picked up the win as he pitched five innings and allowed four hits and only one run.  Hendrickson is now 6-2 on the season.  Matt Lindstrom pitched in relief of Hendrickson and pitched a scoreless inning.  Justin Miller then gave up a solo home run that gave the Diamondbacks their second run of the game.  Renyel Pinto and Kevin Gregg finished the game off and Gregg picked up his eighth save of the season.

Jeremy Hermida, Dan Uggla, and Luis Gonzalez all had one rbi in the game as the Marlins got runs in the third, fourth, and sixth innings.

Marlins Blog

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.

Marlins Homeplate is currently seeking a Marlins fan that would like to write game recaps for the games.  Recaps can be done right after the game is over or the next morning.  If you are interested be us the contact us link at the top of the site to email us.

Marlins Blog

The Florida Marlins were not able to beat the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night as they lost 5-3.  The Marlins tried coming back but were only able to score one run in the eighth inning when they were needed to score three or four.

Mark Hendrickson pitched five innings and gave up eight hits and four runs to take the loss.  Hendrickson is now 5-2 on the season.  Doug Waechter gave up two hits and one run as he pitched in relief as well.  Matt Lindstrom pitched a scoreless inning after Waechter left the game.

Cody Ross had a solo home run in the eighth inning for the Marlins.  The other rbi’s for the Marlins came in the fifth and seventh innings.  In the fifth inning, Hanley Ramirez had a sac fly to score a run and then in the seventh inning, Dan Uggla had a rbi single to center field.

The Marlins are now 23-16 on the season.  I see them bouncing back tomorrow and picking up their 24th win of the season.  Marlins Blog