Flailing toward the finish line

If nothing else, the Marlins' 2nd-half slide has left no doubt what has to happen next

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The final linescore last night looked all-too-familiar for the Marlins. No runs, 4 hits and another loss despite a well-pitched game.

What’s happened to the Marlins over the 2nd half of the season is stunning, but if you’ve been reading VIEW FROM THE BLEACHERS all season, you should also realize it’s not surprising no matter how much die-hard fans had begun to buy the mid-summer hype that this season might finally be different.

Despite a great first half, this team is likely to end the season where most objective observers expected it would in the spring, improved from last year with 70-something wins but, still, with a long way to go to be considered a legitimate threat to any of the big boys.

I wrote in April about how the Marlins were positioned to pile up a good number of wins during an outrageously easy 50-game stretch of schedule in May and June.

And they did.

A golden opportunity

I wrote repeatedly about how the 2nd-half schedule would be much less friendly.

And it has been.

Here we go!

Things have played out as I expected, and as I told you they would.

Simply put, the Marlins have proven to be good enough to beat up on bad teams (12 games over .500 against teams that are currently in 4th and 5th place), but they have been non-competitive (13 games under .500) against everyone else. They’re 5-17 against current division leaders and 19-35 against teams that would be in the playoffs if the postseason started today.

And that’s why the club woke up today a game under .500 at 66-67.