Rising in the East

 

So, once again. To anyone who thought the Nationals would be the surprise breakout team in the NL East, you may be entitled to financial compensation.

The Miami Marlins are becoming something of an under-the-radar monolith, especially in the month. They were 26-34 leaving May, and they are now 25-8. Meaning they've almost doubled their entire prior win total in the last month and a half, and have only lost 8 games, 2 of which coming at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies...who they are currently tied with for second place, and three games behind the Braves. It's a wild development, but...it's one you wouldn't be called insane for seeing coming.

Let's remind ourselves, that the Washington Nationals, in spite of their uproarious offense, great base running and great new-school ideas...don't have much of a rotation. It's Foster Griffin and look out. Littell was on a decent pace but now he's getting lit up all the time. The Marlins had depth even before they became good. Max Meyer, Eury Perez and Sandy Alcantara were all there, dormant, even before they became the keys to this rotation's success. Sandy had a rough start, Perez had a rough start...look at 'em now. Perez now leads the team in WHIP with 1.105, and has 89 Ks and a 3.84 ERA. Meyer is still looking very sharp, with a 9-1 record, a 2.58 ERA and 116 Ks. And even if this isn't peak Cy Young era Sandy, the guy still looks good, leads the league in IP with 123 and has a 10-4 record with 92 Ks. The back half is a little shakier, it's Tyler Phillips and a pen game, but it's working. Way better than the Nats'.

And with the amount of offensive depth the Marlins came into this season with, a moment like this where almost every option is a good one is pretty satisfying. Kyle Stowers was hurt for a bit, then cold for a month. And NOW he's taking off again, with 12 homers and 41 RBIs, plus an .801 OPS, making up for lost time. Stowers is very much the same kind of power bat that blew up last year, and while his sustainability is still in question, he's still crucial to the team's current success. Owen Caissie just got injured, so Stowers, who'd been filling in at 1st, will get more OF time. But even still bench OF options Griffin Conine and Esteury Ruiz are still pretty good. Having to choose between Heriberto Hernandez and Griffin Conine is still a pretty nice choice. It also helps that Marsee seems to be heating up a little, and that Liam Hicks has no issue filling in at 1st while Joe Mack continues his excellent campaign behind the plate. Also very cool that Javier Sanoja seems to have won the race for third by default, and is getting time there everyday. 

The core of this team being Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards and Kyle Stowers is something that I never thought would work, but they're winning games and outhitting great teams [THE MARINERS]. I hope it keeps going, and I hope they can shock some people further down the stretch. 

Coming Tomorrow- A Tigers pitcher that has stayed healthy all season and probably won't be leaving anytime soon. What a concept, right?