A Bunch of Sluggers Held Together With a Rubber Band

 

On paper, it must seem odd that the Marlins were able to take down the Dodgers last night, especially considering that they gave up 9 runs during this loss. I mean, this is a 1st place Dodgers team that has Shohei Ohtani, who hit homer #48 last night. How can the Marlins even match up?

But then you really look at what this team looks like now. There aren't really any stars, but there's a lot of surprisingly efficient role-players. And last night, the only person in the starting lineup not to get a hit was Griffin Conine, who's been decent enough otherwise. Meaning people like Jonah Bride, Xavier Edwards, Otto Lopez and Jake Burger were able to get things done for this team. Jonah Bride has become a surprisingly impeccable DH for these guys. In 59 games he's got 28 RBIs and 7 home runs. That's a pretty nice line for a guy who couldn't get anything done with Oakland. 

And the most crucial bit of this team might be the duo that came over here from Baltimore in exchange for Trevor Rogers. Connor Norby, now that he has somewhere to play, has been genuinely awesome in Miami, hitting .260 with 28 hits, 15 RBIs and 6 homers. Kyle Stowers, who was supposed to be the big power guy in the deal, has taken a little longer to warm up, but last night he showed his strengths, with a nice RBI triple. On a full year, Stowers could be a ton more potent, and much more useful to the Marlins. Very fascinating that these two are doing so well for the Marlins as the O's skid to a crawl.

And then, as disastrous as the pitching has been this year, with standout performers like Ryan Weathers and Jesus Luzardo getting hurt, Edward Cabrera has finally achieved stability atop the rotation. Cabrera, despite arriving late and some dire first half starts, now has a 4.55 ERA and 98 Ks. There have been a ton of August/September starts where Cabrera's dominance has returned, and where he genuinely looks like he did when the Marlins were better. There's talk of Alcantara being back in full force next year, but given another setback, hopefully a fuller Cabrera season will keep the rotation steady, in addition to potential strong follow-ups from Valente Bellozo, Eury Perez and hopefully Weathers. 

The Marlins, while clearly still being a bad team, have the sort of lineup that can click into place every so often and dominate. It happened against the Phils last week, and it's happening against the Dodgers. With refining, this could be the new standard. Maybe not immediately, but perhaps soon.

Coming Tonight: By the grace of whoever, hopefully one of the last times I have to talk about the White Sox this year.