Miami Marlins morning news: Ichiro sets tone against Rays

Marlins News

Ichiro, who is replacing the injured Christian Yelich in left field, hit four singles last night and drove in a run to spark the late-inning rally that pushed the Marlins past the Rays. This salvaged what was another sub-par start by big free agent signing Wei-Yin Chen.

Yelich, listed as day-to-day with back spasms, was on deck as a pinch-hitter in the game last night, but his role was that of a decoy and he was never going to bat. He may be able to return to the lineup in a few days and avoid a stint on the DL.

It has been widely reported that Giancarlo Stanton has been enduring one of the worst slumps of his career over the past three weeks, and after further analysis, the cause of his frustration may have been identified.

Just like Jaromir Jagr for the Florida Panthers, an over 40, sure first-ballot Hall of Famer in the form of Ichiro Suzuki is a leading force of the Marlins' roster. Whether this is good or bad, it is definitely fun to watch.

A collection of links about the up and down season the Marlins are having, and the upcoming draft, can be found here.

One of those downs is the fact that Miami is not playing that well against the NL East, and that is something the club has to improve on if they want to finish with a winning record in 2016.

Around the League

Clayton Kershaw made sure that the Dodgers only had to play nine innings to beat the Reds last night by throwing a two-hit shutout. That came a day after they had to play 17 frames to beat the Padres.

The Giants rode two bloop hits in the ninth to walk-off on San Diego and give Johnny Cueto the victory to go along with his complete game shutout.

The Cardinals hit two home runs late in the game to down the Cubs last night which might prove to be the turning point of their average start to the campaign.

Matt Harvey was given the option to skip the immediate rematch with the NL East-leading Nationals after he suffered the worst start of his career the last time he took to the mound. He declined.

The Braves added yet another draft pick in a trade with the Orioles as they continue to build for the future and look toward next season.

Pirates pitcher Ryan Vogelsong was hit in the face by a pitch while batting and had to be removed from the game yesterday afternoon. There is yet to be an announcement on the extent of his injuries, but he was able to walk off the field.