The Marlins are finally back home from a long, 12-game road trip. Overall the Fish went 7-5. That's decent enough, but they're still 4.5 games back of the division leading Washington Nationals (that still just sounds so wrong).
Going into the trip, I was hoping that we would learn a lot more about this Marlins team. Two weeks later, I'm not sure that we've learned all that much. The trip started out with an interesting trip to Chicago - which featured two impressive wins and one ugly defeat. A visit to Southern California came next, which simply wasn't pretty. The Fish did manage to avoid a sweep, but they also managed to waste two excellent starts (one from Willis and another from Moehler). After an off day, the Marlins went to Atlanta, where they were shut out in consecutive games by the Braves, only to be saved by Dontrelle Willis in the series finale. This past weekend, in Tampa, the Marlins got back on a winning track - sweeping all three games against the lowly Rays.
In the end, the Fish amassed a 7-5 record, which sounds decent enough. That record helps to hide the fact that the Fish were blown out three times and went 1-2 in one run games on this trip.
Sweeping the Rays sure feels nice, but I'm not convinced that it means that all is right in Marlin-land. It may take another week or two before we can know whether or not this year's Marlins team is really capable of reaching the postseason. With seven games this week against the Braves (home) and Mets (road), we should start getting a better idea about things pretty soon.