Marlins’ offense scores three in the first, calls it a day

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• Here is the Marlins offensive highlight:

Jon Lester would settle down after that, allowing only two hits further through seven innings. That would prove enough, because...

• Justin Nicolino would give up three runs in four innings of work, and the normally steady Nick Wittgren would supply another couple to those damn greedy Cubs. Kyle Barraclough, Dustin McGowan and Junichi Tazawa (!) pitched cleanly four the final four frames.
• The announced crowd of 25,448 was the largest at Marlins Park since May 13th. If there was any doubt of the makeup of the audience, it was dispelled when the pop of the night went to Anthony Rizzo’s pinch-hit appearance in the ninth.

The Marlins have been see-sawing between six and seven under .500 for several games now, which, if it were to continue into July, would almost surely signal the beginning of the end of this particular Marlins team as we know it. The first domino to fall may be Adeiny Hechavarria, but he most assuredly wont be the last.

Final game of the four game set features Mike Montgomery vs Edinson Volquez, 1 pm ET start.

Kingfish: JT Realmuto (.286)

Flounder: Nick Wittgren (-.268)

Play of the game: Realmuto three run shot in the first (.275)*

*just goes to show that, sometimes, it’s the accumulation of plays here and there that decide the game, not necessarily the standout occurrence. Baseball!