The Marlins concluded their series with the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon and they brought the big bats to the park, mashing three home runs en route to a 7-2 victory over the defending champs.
(Kinda) Vulgar Display of Power
For most of this season, one glaring area of weakness for the Miami Marlins has been in the power department. In the month of May alone, the Fish slugged just .325, good for dead last in all of the major leagues. Obviously, the absences of Giancarlo Stanton and Logan Morrison had a great deal to do with that, but even with injury issues to a roster, numbers like can cause even the most optimistic of fans to have a panic attack. It's been a far different story in the month of June, with the club slugging .362. Although the change isn't drastic, there's a good chance that the worst of the Marlins' issues in the power department are likely behind them.
In Sunday afternoon's contest, the Marlins got dingers from Justin Ruggiano (twice) and Marcell Ozuna. Most significant among these power developments is undoubtedly that of Ozuna (he also doubled off of Matt Cain), who has struggled quite a bit at the plate recently after the rapid pace he set to begin his big league career. We've talked here at Fish Stripes before about how Ozuna himself said that he wanted to be a .300 hitter before worrying about displaying the prodigious power he displayed while in the minor leagues, and perhaps this could be where we start to see him flip that power switch.
'Penmanship
After six solid innings from starter Nathan Eovaldi, the Fish shut the door on San Francisco with four pitchers combining to throw three scoreless innings from the bullpen. The club has been at the middle-of-the-pack in terms of bullpen metrics this season, but with a more stable rotation and lineup beginning to emerge, the pen will now have quite a few more leads to attempt to protect than in previous months.
Mind-Blowing Fact of the Night
If you're still skeptical that the Marlins are a team that is in a substantially better situation than they were to begin, behold this tweet from the one and only Jeff Sullivan:
since May 31, Marlins have NL's second-best record
— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) June 24, 2013
There you have it, folks. Your Miami Marlins are one of the best teams in the National League this month. Here's to hoping they can keep this thing called "winning" up.
Looking Ahead
The Marlins are off on Monday before welcoming the Twins to Miami for a short, two-game series starting Tuesday. Jose Fernandez will be taking the hill so my question is why have you not set up a viewing party already?
Source: FanGraphs