The Win-Streak Endeth
They say all good things must come to an end, and the Marlins, led by Ricky Nolasco, proved the old adage true in very convincing fashion Wednesday night at Land Shark Stadium as they took on the Astros in the third game of the series.
To be honest, I’m not really sure why anyone would want to suffer the torture of reliving the nightmare that was Wednesday’s game, so if you want to spare yourself the agony, feel free to stop reading right…here.
But in case you happen to enjoy mentally brutalizing yourself, I’ll go ahead and share the highlights (lowlights?) of the contest.
To put it simply, game three went real bad for the Fish as Nolasco lasted all of 3 1/3 innings and gave up a career-high ten runs to Houston.
The Marlins’ already overworked bullpen, which handled 4 innings in Monday’s game and another 6 1/3 innings on Tuesday, had to be called on once again to piece together the game. Tim Wood took over for Ricky and allowed three runs in 1 2/3 innings of work, courtesy of the second three-run homer of the night by Hunter Pence. Calero, Pinto and Donelly each pitched scoreless innings, and Matt Lindstrom–still not looking terribly sharp after is return from the DL–gave up two hits in the eighth, one of which was a home run to Geoff Blum.
The Marlins offense scored five runs off of Astros starter Bud Norris, and with 14 hits managed to extend their streak of games with double-digit hits to nine. Hanley Ramirez was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer, and Chris Coghlan extended his personal hitting streak to 11 games when he hit an RBI single in the eighth. But the Marlins’ offense couldn’t overcome the rough start by Ricky Nolasco, and the Fish fell to the Astros to snap their five-game win streak.
Losses happen. One thing is certain, though– they’re going to keep happening if our starters don’t go deeper into games. The bats may be hot right now, but the unfortunate reality is that even double-digit hits and runs are not always going to overcome a rotation of starters who last a mere 3-5 innings a night.
Sean West will get a chance to reverse the recent trend tonight as the Fish go for the series win against the Astros. If his last outing is any indication, um, we could be in for a fun night. Thankfully Chris Leroux and his fresh arm were called up from Jax today (to replace Tim Wood, who was optioned to AAA after the game), and are on standby in case West decides he’s only good for three innings.
marlinkelly
