Marlins Are Ice Cold In June
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Marlins miserable June continued over the weekend as the Fish dropped two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Marlins bats have gone ice cold, despite the summer heat bearing down on South Florida. During the three game series over the weekend, the Marlins were outscored 17-4. Both of the Marlins losses in the series were shutouts.
Since the calendar turned to June, Miami is 4-11. The Marlins last home stand saw the team lose all but one of nine straight inside the unfriendly confines of Marlins Park.
It's not just the fact the Marlins are losing; they're not competitive in many of the losses. Last Friday, the Marlins were skunked by the Rays 11-0. Just two days before that the Marlins lost the final game of the home stand 10-2.
Currently, no player on the Marlins is hitting above .300 for the season. Omar Infante leads the team in hitting at .281 thus far. Giancarlo Stanton has gone from hitting .296 to start the month to just .272 more than halfway through June.
Stanton's numbers have been especially horrid over his last 10 games. In that time span, Stanton is hitting just .146 with 6 hits, 1 home run, and 16 strikeouts.
Perhaps the lone bright spot in the batting order has been leadoff man Jose Reyes. He's hitting .275 on the season which is third-best on the Marlins roster. He's hitting .279 over his last ten games, but hasn't stolen a base over that same time span.
The Marlins have been without center fielder Emilio Bonifacio since May 25 and his speed has been missed on the base paths. He had stolen 20 bases when he went down with an injury and had a .351 on-base percentage.
The Marlins pitchers haven't helped the cause through the month of June either. The Marlins' pitcher with the best ERA is Mark Buehrle at 3.41. Anibal Sanchez checks in at 3.47 and Carlos Zambrano is at 3.92.
For comparison purposes, the NL East leading Washington Nationals have three pitchers with sub-3.00 ERA's. Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg has an ERA of 2.45; Gio Gonzalez comes in at 2.52 and Jordan Zimmerman has a 2.92 ERA.
Something has to happen for the Marlins in the coming weeks. Bonifacio is not expected back until after the All-Star Break and the Marlins have to start righting the ship as soon as possible. The Marlins are at .500 for the season and if they don't rediscover their play from May, it could be an ugly second half of the season.
