Just as the Marlins seemed to finally have found their footing in the 2012 season the Marlins are going to have to make to big changes to their everyday lineup.  The first change is because Emilio Bonifacio injured his thumb while being thrown out trying to steal a base Friday night, the first time he had been thrown out this year.  Right now the Marlins are calling it a sprained right thumb and Ozzie Guillen said that Boni will be out at least a couple of games, the Marlins are still awaiting the results of his MRI.  Bryan Petersen replaced Bonifacio in the lineup on Saturday and ended his streak of 112 consecutive game streak.  It was the third longest consecutive game streak in the National League after Joey Votto and Michael Bourne.

Then after Saturday's 2-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians came word that the Miami Marlins will be optioning first baseman Gaby Sanchez down to Triple-A New Orleans.  With three plays on the roster who have first base experience, Greg Dobbs, Austin Kearns, and Logan Morrison, the Marlins are expected to call up Chris Coghlan who was sent down to the minors a little under a month ago.  Gaby Sanchez was red hot last year at the start of the year and made the All-Star team, but since the All-Star game Gaby is only hitting .225.  This year Gaby is hitting just .190 with one home run and nine RBI.  GM Michael Hill send that the Marlins are sending him down because "We want to take some of the pressure of him, send him down and get him right.”

• After splitting 2 two game series the Marlins head into Cleveland for their first interleague series.  Ozzie Guillen mentioned last week that he plans to rotate Logan Morrison, Austin Kearns, and Greg Dobbs between left field and the DH position when they play in American League Parks. 
• It is unclear whether Guillen will mix up the lineup at all or if he will just stick the DH position into the pitcher spot.  Personally I have always been in favor of sticking speed at the 9 spot.  In the middle of the game the potential of having Bonifacio, Reyes, and Infante is very dangerous trio to face, especially when it is followed by Hanley Ramirez and Giancarlo Stanton.
• Emilio Bonifanco on Wednesday got his major league leading 20th stolen base of the year, he leads 5 players who are tied in second with 12th stolen bases.  Bonifacio is 20 for 20 this season in stolen bases attempts.  Jose Reyes is in 8th place in MLB and is 10 fr 14 in stolen base attempts.
• Marlins have also seen a significant increase recently in the batting averages from Jose Reyes, Emilio Bonifacio, and Gancarlo Stanton.  Reyes had spent most of April hitting around .220, but he has raised it to .247 and he even had it up to .261 before going 1 for 12 in his last 3 games.  Bonifacio saw his average drop to .237 on May 2nd before being moved to 7th place in the order but since being moved down in the order he has thrived raising his average to .265. Even Stanton who had been hitting in the upper .260s most of the year has raised his average to .281 and is now tied for 8th in the NL with 8 home runs.
• Giancarlo Stanton has officially ht the logest home run at Marlins Park on the 14th. It went 433 feet according to Marlins measurments.
• Ricky Nolasco is now 0-2 since tying Dontrell Willis for the Marlins career total wins record.  In those two games Ricky has pitched a total of 8.2 innings giving up 10 earned runs while striking out 5 and walking 4.

The Marlins now finish up their five game road trip with a stop in Cleveland, a rematch of the 1997 World Series.

• Friday 7:05 at Cleveland:  Carlos Zambrano (1-2) vs. Justin Masterson (1-3)
• Saturday 4:05 at Cleveland: Anibal Sanchez (2-1) vs. Jeanmar Gomez (2-2)
• Sunday 1:05 atCleveland: Josh Johnson (1-3) vs. Derek Lowe (6-1)

While it may not have been pretty for the first 8 inning in Friday night and Sunday's games, but when it was all said and done the Marlins find them selves at 18-16 and winners of 10 of their last 12 games.  Both wins were similar as the Marlins gave up the lead to the Mets late in the game and in the ninth inning thanks in part both time to a clutch hit my Greg Dobbs the Marlins were able to get walk off hits in the bottom of the 9th.  

On Friday the Marlins gave up 3 runs in the 8th giving the Mets a 5-3 lead, but the Marlins scored on a run in the bottom of the 8th and in the ninth Emilio Bonifacio singled in Stanton and Greg Dobbs had the walk off single two batters later.  

On Sunday the Marlins trailed 2-0 most of the game till John Buck hit a 2 run home run in the 7th to tie the game.  Then in the top of the ninth with Heath Bell on the mound, the Marlins intentionally walked Baxter to load the bases for Justin Turner with two outs.  After a long at bat and with the count full, Turner doubled to right field making it a 4-2 mets lead heading into the bottom of the 9th.  After the first two men reached base Greg Dobbs came in again to pitch hit and he singled to right field again to score Bonifacio and advance Hayes to third.  Fast forward six batter latter the score is tied at four with the bases loaded for Giancarlo Stanton who jacked a ball that bounced off the stairs next to the home run sculpture to win the game for the Marlins 8-4.

The Marlins lost their game on Saturday 9-3, in a game where Ricky Nolasco just was not himself.  Only 16 times in his career has Nolasco walked 3 players in a game without one being an intentional walk, and he did that in the first inning against the Mets.  So while the Marlins continued to not be very productive run wise it the game, it was more of an aberration that can easily be looked passed.

While the Marlins got two more good starts out of Mark Buehrle and Carlos Zambrano, and Stanton (7-13 with 2 runs, 5 RBI, and 1 home run), Reyes (7-11 with 3 runs, 1 RBI, 1 stolen base), and Bonifacio (5-11 with 3 run, 1 RBI, and 2 stolen bases) all had good series from the plate, not enough can be said about Greg Dobbs. Twice he came up in the 9th inning as a pitch hitter with the team trailing and needing a big hit and he came through for them.  Before his hit on Friday to win the game I said that Omar Infante is the only Marlins I'd want up right now with the game on the line over Dobbs.  I jumped on his bandwagon early in the season last year and he has continued to come up with big hit after big hit in pitch hit situations since becoming a Marlin.  This season Dobbs is 12 for 43 (.279) with 6 RBI, 4 runs and 7 strikeouts, but if you adjust that to just his pitch hit situations he is 7 for 17 (4.12) with 3 RBI, 2 runs and 2 strike outs.  To have someone batting .412 in pitch hitting situations is crazy and an amazing weapon to have in the National League.  While it will be nice when Hanley Ramirez and Gaby Sanchez start to hit their averages, as long as the Marlins continue to have the efforts they are having from their starting pitchers and Dobbs continues to thrive as a pitch hitter, the Marlins will always have a chance to win.

The Marlins now have a two game set versus the Pittsburgh Pirates before they head out on a five game road trip.

• Monday 7:10 at Marlins Park: Anibal Sanchez (2-0) vs Brad Lincoln (2-0)
• Tuesday 7:10 at Marlins Park: Josh Johnson (0-3) vs Kevin Correia (1-3)

After leaving Marlins Park on April 30th a season low six ga,es under .500 it looked like the Marlins could be in serious trouble since they were about to head out on a nine game west cost road trip. And now on May 9th after the Marlins went a team record 8-1 on a 9 game road trip, the team sits at 16-15 and only 2.5 games back of division leader Atlanta.  After a rocky month to start the season the Marlins are lucky to in the position they are in. 

Although Luck may be the wrong word, the Marlins starting pitching has been outstanding and despite problems this year hitting the ball, fielding mistakes, and late game bullpen collapses, the Marlins starting 5 has been the driving force in the Marlins success this year.  Right now the Miami Marlins have the third lowest ERA (3.16) and are tied for the most quality starts (24) in the majors.  The Marlins pitching numbers would be even more impressive if not for some poos starts by Josh Johnson.  His ERA is at 5.87, meanwhile Nolasco's is 2.72, Sanchez is 2.01, Buehrle is 2.83, and Carlos Zambrano who just picked up his first win for the Marlins has an ERA of 1.98.   The only real disapointment about the Marlins starters is that they only have 9 wins, but part of that is do to the fact that the Marlins bullpen has 8 blown saves.

The Marlins bullpen has had its good moments and its bad.  Despite its 8 blown saves, the Marlins bullpen ERA is 3.42 which is good enough for 10th in the Majors.  Most of the blame for the bullpens struggles can be placed squarely on Heath Bell who saw his ERA balloon to over 11 and thus causing him to lose his job as closer during this road trip. 

The Marlins have also lost leads due to some poor fielding errors and mistakes.  The Marlins have also committed the 8th most errors in the majors with 23 and the 9th worst fielding percentage in the Majors.  Of course then their are also plays like the one Stanton made Wednesday night in the ninth inning where he dove for a ball instead of keeping it in front of him, allowing Carlos Lee's single to become a triple and led to a blown save and could have resulted in a Marlins loss.

The bullpen and the Marlins fielding errors aside, the real problem has been the Marlins offense.  While the Marlins are 5th in the NL in home runs they are 12th in runs, 12th in slugging percentage, and 14th in batting average in the NL.  Worst of all the Marlins are dead last in MLB with a .190 batting average with runners in scoring position, and are 29th in MLB with a .213 batting average with any runners on base.  It is staggering the number of men the Marlins have left on base.  Just to put that into perspective, in losses the Marlins are scoring just under 2 runs a game a 1.93, and are losing by an average of 2.67 runs in those games.  So if the Marlins were able to hit better with runners in scoring position they'd probably be leading the NL East.

The Marlins now prepare for a five game home stand that will start a string of almost three weeks without any days off.  Thursday's day off is the Marlins is the Marlins last scheduled off day until May 31st.  In that time the Marlins have series at home versus the Mets, Pirates, Rockies, Giants and Nationals, and road trips to Atlanta and Cleveland.  The Marlins will start off tomorrow against the Mets.

• Friday 7:10 at Marlins Park:  Mark Buehrle (2-4) vs Johan Santana (1-2)
• Saturday 1:05 at Marlins Park:  Ricky Nolasco (4-0) vs R.A. Dickey (4-1)
• Sunday 1:10 at Marlins Park:  Carlos Zambrana (1-2) vs Jonathon Niese (2-1)

While things may not have gone perfectly the Marlins in their three game sweep of the Padres definitely played their best overall series since they swept the Cubs at home in mid April.  In the three games against the Padres, a team that swept the season series versus the Marlins in 2011, the Marlins were actually able to string some hits together and score runs.  The Marlins scored 19 total runs on 29 hits versus the Padres, compared to just 8 runs in their three wins in San Francisco, yet the team still left 21 men on base. 

It was a series were Giancarlo Stanton and Omar Infante continued to stay hot (Giancarlo Stanton 3-10 with 2 home runs, 3 run, 4 RBI and Omar Infante 5 for 11 with 1 run and 4 RBI including the game winning RBI double in the 12th inning on Friday), but also got to see some signs of life from the bats of Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez and Gaby Sanchez as well.  Right now only Infante, Stanton, Greg Dobbs, and Logan Morrison have batting averages over .250 for the Marlins, but if guys who usually hit for average like Hanley, Reyes, and Gaby can start to turn it on (how many times have I said that this year) then this team can start to climb their way back into the NL East race, especially after today's win put them back at .500 for the first time since the Washington series.

But not everything came up frpses for the Marlins as Josh Johnson continues to have his ups and downs as he is coming back from last years shoulder injury.  On Friday, he went just 2 2/3 innings giving up 6 runs on 6 hits and raised his ERA to 6.61.  And while the Marlins were able to fight their way back into the game, Heath Bell blew his 4th save of the series and as a result he will no longer be the teams closer until further notice.  Steve Cishek, who may or may not be available to pitch on Monday, will take over as the team's closer until Ozzie Guillen feels comfortable with giving the responsibility back to Bell.

Luckily in the next two game the Marlins were able to get solid starting performances from both Mark Buehrle and Ricky Nolasco.  After Friday's extra inning game which really drained the bullpen, and forced the Marlins to bring up Chris Hatcher and Sandy Rosario, the Marlins desperately needed Buehrle and Nolasco to go far into their starts and they did just that.  On Saturday, Mark Buehrle ave up just one run on his way to his first complete game as a Marlin.  Then on Sunday, Ricky Nolasco gave up just 2 runs in 7 innings on his way to his 4th win of the season and tied the Marlins franchise record for career wins.

Now the Marlins head to Houston forthe final three games of their nine game game road trip.

• Monday 8:05 at Houston: Carlos Zambrano (0-2) vs. Wandy Rodriguez (3-2)
• Tuesday 8:05 at Houston: Anibal Sanchez (0-2) vs Fernando Rodriguez (0-0)
• Wednesday 8:05 at Houston: Josh Johnson (0-3) vs. Lucas Harrell (2-2)