At this point in the season we should know better than to hope, but that willful emotion swelled within us nonetheless as John Buck launched a three-run home run to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday against the Braves.

The hope of bringing the Marlins five-game losing streak to a halt was deflated, however, when Martin Prado’s 11th-inning RBI single gave the Braves the lead, and ultimately the win.

The Fish have now lost six in a row, and fall to 6-11 in extra innings. Not that one would have expected a different outcome, with the team’s long list of walking wounded, and the fact that they mustered four meager hits in the game. Despite the lack of hits, the Marlins did have chances, including a bases-loaded, one out situation in the eighth on which they failed to capitalize. The team went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position on their way to the loss.

To kinda, sorta add insult to injury, Dan Uggla extended his hitting streak to thirty games with an infield single in the fifth.

Home woes continue for the Marlins, who dropped their series to the division rival Braves with Tuesday’s loss, and have yet to win a game this homestand.

Sigh.