The Miami Marlins and the Wild, Wild Card | Gone Fishin'

Good morning and welcome to GoneFishin' on the 5 Reasons Sports YouTube channel. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe here. 5 Reasons Sports doing all of the best work in South Florida sports media, tracking the Dolphins in their historic run so far. The Miami Heat, their pursuit of Dame, training camp opening up in a week and a half or so. Miami Hurricanes off to a 4-0 start, ranked inside the top 25. The Miami Marlins, 81-75 here. Six games over 500. They had a 3-3 week this last week. Only one game back of the wildcard with six to go. Things are tightening up and I want to get into it right away. Firstly, with the players of the week, I'm gonna give it up for Jorge Soler, who has been a man on a mission since he's come back. Hitting 417 with 517 on base, 583 slugging for an 11-0-1 OPS. Braxton Garrett, can't say enough about him in September and down the stretch. Six innings, nowhere to run, seven strikeouts. Just a fantastic start for him. He's been really, really, really good for the Miami Marlins of late. Over his last 10 starts, he's pitched to a 2-10 ERA and really, you know, I do want to just touch on this. The team being at 15-6 in September, they are one game back and the job's not finished yet. But I do want to just... I want to just take a minute to kind of sit here and be in awe a little bit of what they've done over the course of September. Because I think if we all look back and we remember there was a point in time where, you know, you had series against the Dodgers, the Brewers, the Braves, the Phillies, and that was your, you know, that was the gauntlet that you had to go through. And the Marlins handled that but before that, right before that stretch of series, you hear Jorge Soler went down standing with them. Okay, not a problem. Marlins survive in advance there. Then you have this series, then you lose two out of three to the Mets. You figure, okay, well, they're running out of gas here. Yuri Perez goes down, SL joints sprain. Marlins win two out of three against the Brewers. Despite losing 16 to nothing in one of the most flatly demoralizing performances I could think of as a Marlins fan. I mean, this was a series that you, you know, everyone was getting up for. It was a weekend series at the ballpark, Friday night. You're thinking, alright, this is their chance to to really stamp themselves into this playoff race. And then they get drubbed 16 to 1. I apologize, not 16 to nothing. And then they come back. Saturday night, they win in close fashion yet again. The Marlins late-inning magic comes through. They score on the wild pitch in the eighth inning. Tanner Scott shuts the door. They win 5-4. And then yesterday, you know, all the bats come out. They only score six runs, but they do it with 17 hits. Josh Bell wakes up a little bit. Jake Berger's been fantastic. Jazz has been great. Solaire's been great. Xavier Edwards gets three hits in place of Luis Reyes, who hurt himself Saturday night, slipping on the on the dugout stairs because it was dark in the stadium for Tanner Scott's entrance. It's stuff you really can't make up with this team right now. They were out pretty much the entire second half. This has been, I mean, they've just had to pull this together with like, you know, tape and scotch tape and and string and paperclips. And I don't know how they've done it, how they've stuck into the, how they've stuck in the race here. But they're here and they've got six games against teams that are below 500, three at the Mets, three at the Pirates. They've been bad against the Mets this year. The Mets have had their number. The Mets are 6-3 against the Marlins this year. The Marlins have played four games against the Pirates. They're 3-1 this year. The Marlins are one game behind the Cubs. The Cubs, their schedule is significantly tougher the rest of the way out. They have a three-game set at Atlanta and then a three-game set at Milwaukee. The good thing about this for the Marlins is that the Marlins do own the tiebreaker over the Cubs. The Marlins have won the season series against the Cubs. They own the tiebreaker. If the Marlins go 4-2, the Cubs go 3-3, the Marlins are in the postseason at 85-77. Now, what do I think the ceiling is for the team if they get in? Admittedly, not very high. I hate to do that because I feel like this team has defied all odds all year long, especially more so really in September when I think everybody just kind of, you know, there was this thought at the end of August that yeah, this is just that point in the Marlins' season where it just fades away and it drifts off and they fall back in the standings towards irrelevancy. And they have not done that. They've not gone quietly into the night, even despite injuries to some of their best players. And you've got to give a lot of credit to the players that are in that clubhouse right now. You've got to give a lot of credit to Skip. This team just doesn't quit and I think that that's the best testament that you can have for this team right now. Whether they get in or not. Now, if they do get in, I assume you're looking at a rotation of Luzardo, Garrett, and Cabrera, which quite frankly, compared to what we thought the top three in a playoff rotation for this Miami Marlins team could be, is not, you know, maybe not what you were hoping as a Marlins fan. But I think just to get in in and of itself symbolically, it would show that things are moving in the right direction. And, you know, you, you, competitors always want to compete, always. So whether you think that they would get smoked in a wild card game, whether you think that they would get smoked in a division series, competitors want to compete. This is valuable experience for some of the guys on your roster. We don't know what Yuri Perez's situation is or would be come playoff time. He was retroactive to September 21st on the 15 day I.L. So I don't know if that would mean if they would somehow get to a division series, if he would even be available. I'm sure it's way too far ahead to even think about that, considering that they have two series still to go here. And the Bats have been good. You know, it's been a little inconsistent. They've had games where they've just been completely shut down and they've had others where the the there, you know, the hits just keep coming in, the faucet just doesn't turn off for the offense. So hopefully they're going to be able to kind of concentrate that get a little bit more consistency out of that. This series against the Mets, it's not going to be an easy one. They've got to see a lot of the guys that they saw that they saw in the last series against the Mets. They've got to see Senga again. They've got to see Lukasi and they're they're going to see David Peterson and Marlins will be sending out at least Garrett and Lizardo, probably a a bullpen day sandwiched in between there versus versus the Mets. And that's where ultimately it's a little you hate to be in a position where you have to use those bullpen games, especially with where you are in the season right now and how every game matters. And but, you know, I can't. You can maybe you can insert Johnny Cueto back into the rotation. But at this point, I'm not sure I would fault Skip and company for for saying that a bullpen game gives them a better chance to win than a Cueto start, because honestly, there's really not much difference there, if you ask me. So I completely understand that you hope a rise is good. Apparently, there are some people that saw him after the game on Saturday didn't look great with his mobility. But I know that the guy is a warrior. If he can't play, he will play. So we'll see how that plays out against the Mets here. But the other thing that I want to talk about is, you know, and again, I don't want to get too far out in front, you know, with transaction talk with anything like that. But I do want to touch on the move to claim that more often waivers. I know that he's not going to be playoff eligible, but Matt Moore is a quality reliever. And I think that it's I think it's a sneaky, brilliant move by the Marlins front office. You're essentially you're essentially going out and getting a guy. You're you're basically signing a free agent in the season that you can use towards twenty twenty four. And it will be a valuable piece in the twenty twenty four bullpen. You know, I don't know if the bull. I hope the bullpen holds up for the remainder of twenty twenty three. And certainly Matt Moore will help with that. But I think that his biggest contributions to this Marlins team will likely be in in twenty twenty four and beyond for more. But I do like him as an addition to the bullpen just in general here. So looking at the Marlins schedule over the over the last six, it's three against the Mets, three against the Pirates, three and six versus the Mets, three to one versus the Pirates. Four and two is the goal. I think if if the Marlins get to eighty five wins and they miss out, it'll be because the Cubs also went to Atlanta, went to Milwaukee and went four and two. And if if that's what happens, then I think the Marlins tip their cap to the Cubs. Great season. Nothing nothing you can do about that. No reason to to hold your head down. Or be ashamed of it or anything like that. But, you know, I do think I would like to see this Marlins team in the playoffs because number one, it's just it's it's one of those things. Baseball is especially when you get into the postseason, possibly the the most anything can happen. Random sport there is teams get hot all the time. They get in, they get hot. And and, you know, whatever happens happens. And the Marlins have hot pass right now. They have Jake Berger. They have Jorge Soler. They have Jazz Chisholm. They have Josh Bell, who had three hits the other day. So the Marlins, they have John Birdie who hit two out on Sunday. They have Garrett Hampson, who's been very good since being called up. So I say all this to say. Six games left. One game back in the wild card. What more could you be asking for, especially when you consider the circumstances right now? Quite frankly, I think that they're kind of playing with house money. You know, you want to get into the playoffs if you can. Absolutely. Do I think that they would make a lot of noise in the playoffs? Candidly, no. Just because of the injury situations. But I think that just the experience and getting that good taste in your mouth of getting there will be so pivotal for this team and so pivotal for for for Skip as a manager and his staff in his first year, kind of kind of getting his feet wet in a way that with with actual success and with a roster that I think the front office will will will concede and it isn't complete yet. I don't know if this was ever the year that they were like, this is the year that we're really going for it. I think that this was the start of that. I think this was the first year of what they saw as a competitive window, you know, and that and that usually that first year of getting into that competitive window is making the postseason. And in the following years, it's getting better. It's getting deeper in the postseason and eventually winning a World Series title. So I do think that as a as a start and as a hey, we're opening up a postseason window for this team. This is generally speaking, going to be the core. We will make some crucial additions in the offseason to continue to get better. But this is the bones of a playoff team. We like the leadership we have. We like the you know, we like the the core players that we have now. Granted, it seems like next year there's going to be a Sandy's shaped hole in the rotation, and that's going to be something that they're going to have to deal with. But that's twenty twenty four is a problem at the moment. What I'm concerned about right now is is the twenty twenty three Marlins getting into the postseason, getting that experience for them, getting that experience with some of the young players. I'd love to see Luzardo in a playoff environment. I'd love to see Edward Cabrera in a playoff environment. He's been great in the month of September pitching to a one ninety three era since he's come back. I just think it would be invaluable for this team to to get there, get the good taste in your mouth. You know, maybe this team is young enough to really not know to be naive, to be so naive that, you know, they don't they don't know what they don't know. Go go win a series or two in the postseason. I mean, that would just be icing on the cake where they are right now is is really kind of playing with house money. When you consider that Sandy went down early September, when you consider Soler went down for most of September, you know, Jesus Luzardo was kind of struggled in the second half of the season. The bullpen has been they've been scrambling to just get innings out of whoever they possibly can. You know, running three starters, two bullpen games out of five. I mean, the Marlins really are right now. This team is the little engine that could at the moment. And and they're doing it. And I think it's fun to watch. They've got six games against two teams that, quite frankly, they should beat. They should go four and two here, even with the injuries. There's there's not any excuses from that perspective and let the chips fall where they may. And if they make the playoffs, I'll be here. If they don't make the playoffs, I'll be here with a retrospective on the season. But we will be following it live and and up to date every Monday. Thank you guys so much for watching. We will see you guys next time on Gone Fish and hopefully previewing a wild card matchup coming off of a successful regular season. So we will see you guys next time. Do not forget to, like, comment and subscribe. It helps grow the channel here, help support what we do. Thank you guys so much. And we'll see you next time.