The Florida Marlins opened up their 6 game homestand on Monday night with a win, and an impressive one at that. No longballs needed tonight. Just an offense taking advantage of the few opportunities they had against good starting pitching, and forcing the bullpen into mistakes. All that in a minute, but the main theme of tonight was the ace of the staff, Scott Olsen, continuing to improve on and off the mound. The box score won’t do him justice, as he gave up about 3 bloop hits that shouldnt have counted.  One number I loved to see though was 0….as in ZERO walks. Not only by Olsen, but the rest of the pitchers as well.  Are you kidding me???!!!!  No walks from a starter with a history of control problems? Another big step for Ollie tonight. He was throwing strikes, making hitters get themselves out, effecient…he was THE MAN. When Uggla bobbled the ball in the seventh inning however, I almost expected Olsen to lose his cool like he has done in the past.  And on the way back to the dugout Olsen did raise his fist to Dan…but lo and behold, it was for a hand pound! not a knuckle sandwich to the face!!!  The Scott Olsen of the last couple years would have lost his cool and gone off the deep end. Guess Scott took some anger management classes over the Winter. Whatever he did, it seems to be working. I look forward to watching him take the mound next series against the Nats. If Ollie continues to pitch effeciently and deep into games, the Marlins are going to hang around with the rest of the division for quite some time.

Offensively tonight was all about fundamentals.  Josh stole 2 bases, scored on a double by Jacobs (which he hit the other way). If Jake had tried to pull that ball, it woulda been an easy out at first and the end of the inning, so great job by Mike.  A triple by Josh ‘Wheels’ Willingham scored Uggla (who is looking a little better at the plate). And how about the back to back 2-out walks with the bases loaded!!!! And Hanley’s came after being down 0-2! All in all the Marlins’ BB/K ratio was even at 6 each, but if you discount the strikeouts by the pitcher and Andino’s pathetic at-bat, you have 6 walks…and only 3 k’s by your regular lineup! That’s the way to approach the plate, take pitches, put the ball in play and don’t strikeout. A very encouraging sign. Hopefully it continues.

Tough to complain after this game (I am really pumped up about this win, and you should be too if you watched the game and understand how crisp and mature this team looked tonight) but the Oscar the Grouch in me says that there are 2 gripes I should have.

1. Why why why why why was Olsen taked out after 7 innings? I know our pen held down the fort but he was under 85 pitches, why not throw him out there?  With the way he has going, the Braves couldn’t really touch him and when a pitcher is feeling it like he was tonight, you ride it as long as you can. Unless you need to pinch-hit for him. I’m normally OK with that…unless the pinch hitter is called on to bunt…WHY WASTE A POSITION PLAYER TO BUNT????? Let the pitcher do it and throw him back out there for the next inning. Which leads to my second point….
2. Robert Andino has won a game for the Marlins this year with a game-ending (not walk-off; I hate that term almost as much as I hate the word ‘stuff’ being used to describe a pitcher’s pitches) homerun, but if he is going to play a utility role on this team (even if he would rather play his natural position) then he must execute the small ball. Especially when you are up there for a pitcher, you had better lay the bunt down, otherwise you just wasted a bench player and out for your club…which is exactly what happened.  2 fouls and a called strike 3 and….”grab some pine, MEAT!”  I’m sure Andino is more than capable to bunt, but little things like that drive me cukoo.
3. One more sidebar…..Hey Jeremy Hermida (spelled h-E9-r-m-i-d-a), can you TRY to hit a ground ball to first with a runner on 2nd and no outs? That moves him to third and makes it easier for him to score, you know. I  didn’t even see him attempt to hit that ball that way. You are better than that Jeremy. I know you can do it b/c I’ve seen you do it before….but where was it in the 6th inning tonight?

So here we are, 8-5, still in first place, and off to a good start on the homestand!!!! Whoo-Hooo!!!  Smoltzie and Hudson the next 2 games…let’s get a split against the tough duo. 

 If the fish can play games the rest of the year like they did tonight, they’ll be in and win a lot of them. Keep it up guys!!!