If you’re a South Floridian, or someone that loves everything and just about anyone associated with it, these are, to put it mildly, atypical times. This time of year is clearly the least ideal–the heat and humidity are often oppressive. There’s no college or even high school football to whet the locals’ often insatiable appetites, and the area’s most popular pro teams are dormant. And coming off a year where both the Heat and Panthers’ post-seasons were atypically short and the Dolphins were, to put it mildly, disappointing whatever sustaining passions one might have for those diversions is a lot more muted than it has been of late. It’s kinda reminiscent of the 90s–when some pretty amazing people in other walks of life were at those peaks.
And aside from the obvs who might recognize those dogwhistles, among those throwback overachievers were the Marlins. When they somehow eclipsed the accelerated pace of the storied New York Mets and won their first World’s Championship in their fifth season, and a mere six years later followed it up with an equally unlikely conquest of the then-dominant Yankees they at least commanded some attention from the judgmental and highly selective beautiful people of the region. But in both cases the Fish’s mercurial rises were ephemeral and unstable ownership resulted in rapid fire sales after the fact that left sour tastes in all but a sliver of their overall fan base. And since 2003 the Marlins have been more often than not irrelevant, with only an asterisked Wild Card from COVID Summer that resulted in their only post-season series win in the last two decades and an unlikely sneaking in to a quick Wild Card Round exit three years later being the sole exceptions–and even those took a back seat to the more notable runs of the NBA and NHL teams that actually won championships and the Fins whose Captain Ahab-like “tanking for Tua” and its aftermath captured the hearts and fancies of those who choose to care.
Which makes what we’ve been seeing of late all the more unlikely and opportunistic. As we approach the All-Star break and well past the halfway point the Marlins sit in a tie with the resurgent Phillies for the second National League wild card, both tied in the win column with the schizophrenic Cubs and both just three games behind the injury-plagued Braves for the Eastern Division title–an honor that the Fish have never achieved once in their 33-year history.
Even though they lost to the equally overachieving Cleveland Guardians last night at Loan Depot Park it doesn’t diminish the level of unexpected success they had achieved just prior to that which had the nameless robot at AP all a twitter:
Otto Lopez hit a two-run triple to back a strong five-inning outing by Janson Junk and the Miami Marlins beat the Seattle Mariners 8-4 on Thursday night to extend their winning streak to six. Griffin Conine homered to help Miami complete a three-game sweep.
The Marlins are 52-42 and 10 games above .500 for the first time since completing a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals on June 18, 2023. Lopez, whose .345 average leads the majors, went 1 for 3 and walked twice. He has a club-record 127 hits before the All-Star break – one more than Luis Arraez had in 2023.
Junk (4-5) allowed two runs – one earned – on three hits in his first start since May 25 after landing on the injured list with right shin bone inflammation. He struck out five and walked four. Conine hit the first pitch from Bryce Miller (4-3) in the bottom of the second inning to tie it 1-1. Jakob Marsee singled and scored on a two-out double by Liam Hicks for a 2-1 lead.
If you had Lopez as your FanDuel choice to be baseball’s most prolific hitter on July 10th, G-d love you. You might have been a bit more on point, if only out of loyalty, with a couple of pitchers whose performances of late have been huge reasons for the above results, as noted by ROUNDTABLE SPORTS’ Tony Capobianco in his write-up of last night’s streak-ender:
Sandy Alcantara… turned in another solid performance. The Marlins ace threw seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits with eight strikeouts…The Marlins (52-43) saw their six-game winning streak snapped with the loss. They will look to rebound on Saturday with Eury Pérez (5-6, 3.84 ERA) on the mound. Perez is coming off seven innings of perfection against the Athletics last week.
The fact that the name Conine is back in the news as a productive Marlin is about as heartwarming a story as once could find around baseball these days, and most def in South Florida. Papa Jeff was one of only three players who earned both World Series rings on those earlier Florida teams and is now a special advisor to the team. And one of the few less tainted memories of those eras who still maintains a loyalty to the franchise and vice-versa. He’s called Mr. Marlin for those reasons, which makes Griffin de facto royalty.
And with the jury still out on whether the version of Giannis Antetokounmpo that is taking his talents to South Beach, with longtime Panther netminder Sergei Bobrovsky heading north of the border and with Tua finally moved on himself, with an overpaid and undertested Malik Willis waiting to inherit the Dolphins’ storied quarterback role it’s all the more opportunistic a time for the Marlins to make hay while the sun shines–and for the first time perhaps have a real chance to hog enough of the spotlight for themselves.
Who knows who might take notice this time around? I know at least I have, but I assure you there’s far bigger and certainly more appealing fish out there whose hearts remain to be captured.
Courage…