After 1st Week, Marlins Worst In Baseball
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Marlins were expected to be one of the worst teams in baseball in 2013 and so far, the team has done everything it can to live down to the low expectations.
Through nine games this season, the Marlins are 1-8, with the lone win coming last Friday against the New York Mets. The miserable start has the Marlins not only at the bottom of the National League East but also at the bottom of the all of Major League Baseball.
While it's still just a little bit more than a week into the regular season, things don't look promising for the Marlins. The team was swept by both the Atlanta Braves, who are playing the best baseball in the Major Leagues, and the Washington Nationals.
The recent three game home stand against the Braves wasn't even close. Atlanta outscored the Marlins by a combined score of 13-2 over the three game series. The Marlins managed just 13 hits across the three games and were shut out in two of the games.
The Marlins were hanging in against the Braves Wednesday night until the top of the fifth inning when two different Braves players hit home-runs in a six-run inning for Atlanta. After that, the few fans who were left in the stadium quickly began to empty out.
Marlins star right fielder Giancarlo Stanton continued to slump during the Braves series. Overall this season, Stanton has been to the plate 30 times and he's struck out 12 times. He's hit just two doubles and has just 5 hits overall for a 0.167 average.
On the pitching side, only one Marlins starting pitcher has earned a win this season, Alex Sanabia. Marlins starters Wade LeBlanc and Kevin Slowey are 0-2 on the season and Ricky Nolasco is 0-1 through two starts.
The Marlins' lone pitching star, rookie Jose Fernandez, has appeared in only one game this season. He threw five innings against the Mets and struck out 8 while walking just one and allowing a total of three hits in a no-decision.
Fernandez's eight strikeouts against the Mets has him tied for second on the team in strikeouts, just two behind LeBlanc.
If there is some hope for the Marlins it's that the team coming to town will be the Philadelphia Phillies, who have struggled to a 4-5 start this season. But, the Phillies have won two in a row heading to Miami for the series with the Marlins.
The Phillies will send John Lannan to the mound who in his only game this season gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings pitched against the Kansas City Royals. He'll face Nolasco who gave up six hits and three runs in his last start, which was a no-decision against the Mets.
After that, the Marlins play the Nationals again before heading on the road for back-to-back series' against the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins.
In case you were wondering, the worst starts of all-time in Major League Baseball include: 1988 Baltimore Orioles (0-21); 2003 Detroit Tigers (1-17); 1962 New York Mets (0-9); and the 2010 Baltimore Orioles (2-16).
