The Marlins were at Citizen's Bank Park Tuesday night to kick off a three-game series with the Phillies. But let's not kid ourselves. The series opener, three-game losing streak and recent sucktitude of the Marlins were the furthest thing from anybody's mind as Fish fans focused on the true meaning of the game of baseball: Mike Stanton's Major League debut.
Stanton started in right field and batted seventh in the lineup, and appeared to handle the pressure of being revered as the savior of the season/greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread with about as much grace as a burly, six-foot-five-inch dude could be expected to.
In his first Big League at-bat, Mikey chopped an infield single. Not exactly the stuff that dreams are made of, but a hit is a hit, and the ball was tossed into the dugout to be cherished for all eternity. Stanton went on to have a three-for-five night and score two runs for the Fish.
The hype surrounding the start of the "Stanton Era" seemed to provide motivation for Hanley Ramirez, who had a breakthrough at the plate against Kyle Kendrick. Hanley hit his first home run against the Phillies since 2008, a two-run shot which gave the Fish a 4-0 lead in the third.
With a nice lead to work with, it seemed Chris Volstad might experience a breakthrough as well, as he finally got the run support that's been missing in his last several starts. Unfortunately, Chris chose to celebrate that breakthrough by having a real bad night, and curing all the Phillies' recent offensive woes. He lasted a mere four innings, and gave up six runs (five earned) on eight hits, including to home runs.
The Marlins' floundering bullpen would go on to officially heal the Philths of their offensive woes, as our relievers gave up four more runs to Philadelphia. So despite Mike Stanton, despite scoring eight runs, and despite having the lead three different times in the game, the Marlins dropped the series opener 10-8, and are officially on a four-game skid.