Today, I drove up to Viera to watch the Marlins and the Nationals. Here are some observations I made from my AWESOME seat in the very first row behind the screen and the right handed batters box (but just far enough away from being dead center that I had an unblocked view of the pitcher and the plate, even with a righty in the box).

In addition to Fredi Gonzalez, Mark Wiley was there today, too. They had some good stuff to talk about after today, I can tell you. The pitching today was MUCH better than what I saw yesterday. Both teams walked only 2 batters a piece, which was a VAST improvement over yesterday and the 14 combined walks. Nolasco, Wolf and Waechter all looked good. Gardner looked good as well, he just was the victim of an error which caused him to give up the one, unearned run.

The reason I made the trip from Palm Beach Gardens up to Viera instead of going to the game in Jupiter was to watch Volstad pitch and he did not disappoint. He has got some great stuff and looked really good out there. The two hits he gave up were both grounders to the left side; one was stopped by an absolutely AWESOME play at third by Castillo who made the throw to first from his knees but Pena just beat out the throw. Now, I can't wait for Volstad to get up to the bigs. He should be able to do wonders for our team.

The only pitcher I wasn't that impressed with was Badenhop. He did alright and kept runs off the board but he gave up the hardest hit balls of the day. The double hit by Brett Boone sounded and looked like a homer off of his bat but it fell just short. I think he still needs a little more time in the minors.

At the plate, de Aza followed up his grand slam from yesterday with a lead-off homer today. This one was not so clearly a homer off the bat as it just cleared the 10 foot fence out in right field. Treanor was 2-2 today. His double was a bullet shot to left center. If he were a little faster, he probably could have made it to third.

It'll be interesting to see how the teams goes with 3rd base. I have now watched both Cantu and Castillo play. From the two games I saw, Castillo was better defensively while Cantu was better at the plate. Castillo didn't do anything at the plate today. I hope McPherson plays on Sunday (when he is hopeful he'll be back) so I can get a look at him, too.

As for Maybin, his injury didn't look too bad. He pulled up after he rounded first and that prompted Fredi and the trainer to go talk with him. He wasn't limping that bad when he walked off the field. Seeing Hoover go in and pinch run and then go play in left field made me think that he was probably the only other player that the Fish brought with them. Hoover even got to make an out while playing left field.

All in all, it was another great day. The weather was much better than yesterday (I'm looking a little like a lobster right now) and the game was more entertaining (although, I will never complain about a 13 run victory). I will be in Jupiter for the next two days so I will post my observations from those two games when I can. I hope you guys are enjoying my recaps.