Marlins Showing Signs Of Life
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – While the calendar turning over from June to July won't even register as a blip for most people, for the Miami Marlins it's the end of one of the most successful months the team has seen in the last two years.
The Marlins finished off the month of June with a 15-10 record, which was second-best in the National League behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. The last time the Fish put up a record that good was in May 2012 when the team went 21-9 before completely imploding the rest of the season.
While the Marlins' June record was solid, it couldn't make up for the Fish's abysmal start to the season. The Marlins were 14-41 in the months of April and May leaving one large hole to crawl out of the rest of the season.
Despite the Marlins' June record, the squad is still in last place in Major League Baseball. Still, the Fish are only one game behind next-to-last Houston and are hot on the heels of the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox, and New York Mets.
Miami is still last in the National League in runs scored, but things are finally starting to look up for the Fish. Slugger Giancarlo Stanton has finally gotten over his injury bug and hit his first home run in his last 10 games on Saturday.
The Fish are also pleased with the development of rookie outfielder Marcell Ozuna. The 23-year-old outfielder is hitting .342 with nine RBI's in his last 10 games and is hitting .300 on the season. If Ozuna continues to improve, it could allow the Marlins to bring up star prospect Christian Yelich.
If Yelich, Ozuna, and Stanton can all get on the same page at the plate, it makes for a solid trio for the batting order.
What's been the most impressive for the Marlins has been the improvement of the team's pitching staff. The top performer has arguably been rookie Jose Fernandez who has posted a 4-4 record on the season with a 2.98 ERA.
Since the beginning of May, Hernandez is 4-2 with a 2.37 ERA over 60.2 innings pitched and has a nearly 3-1 strikeout to walk ratio over that span.
In addition to Fernandez, the Marlins are getting stellar pitching out of Jacob Turner and Nathan Eovadli, acquired from the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers respectively.
Turner is 2-0 since his call-up to the Majors and over his last six starts is 2-0 with a 1.76 ERA and has allowed just eight earned runs during that time period. Turner also pitched the Marlins' first complete game of the season over the weekend, scattering seven hits over nine innings on 111 pitches.
Eovaldi has started three games for the Fish this season and is 1-0 in those games. Eovaldi has an ERA of 2.00 and given up just 4 earned runs over his last three starts.
While Miami is still struggling overall, the team is showing signs of life for the first time this season. The Marlins still have Yelich and Jake Marisnick, among others, moving up through the minor leagues. It's giving Marlins fans something they haven't had in a while, hope.
