Rex

gameday seems to have caught up...

try this...cbs sportsline... http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/gamecenter/live/MLB_20090920_FLA@CIN

Wells sac bunt to pitcher....McDonald to 2b....2 outs...

Red's McDonald gets an IF hit(to SS)...1st hit of the game Miller hits a fly out to OF....1 out...

Is there a delay or something? Gameday froze on me. mine's froze also....Marlins went 1-2-3- in the t3rd....

Rich said there was 13 games left for the Marlins.However i counted 10. Did you count the 3 scheduled for October? @ Philly

nice to see RVH "off the hook"... even nicer that we take the lead,...

we do get the double play...

BC = Big Catch...

dick pole... 1st appearance(name mentioned) of the weekend....hopefully we'll hear it a lot....

darn that was close....

Companions, I feel our chances of winning the World Series are dwindling. there's always a "Debbie Downer" around....

How can they play in this downpour? puddles at the OB site also.... http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/ballpark/webcam.jsp never should have taken this long to get a ballpark...jmo...

Congrats to Gaby Sanchez on his 1st MLB home run, and Tim Wood....his 1st MLB win..

Nats announcer: "Ross makes the catch that Maybin was unable to last night..." Flores FO...

RIP....

Our record is currently 75-65....10 games over .500, tying the "high water" mark for the year(remember 11-1 ??).... we were 46-44 at all star break....low point was 19-25(TB loss 5/23) quite a roller coaster this year....and it's not over yet... http://espn.go.com/mlb/teams/schedule?team=fla&season=2009&half=1 http://espn.go.com/mlb/teams/schedule?team=fla&season=2009&half=2

I dunno who the announcer is but he has said an array of stupid things tonight. Brad Nessler....Todd Blackledge(color)

this has been the best f***ing game i've watched all weekend. feels like a bowl game I agree....I'm in Big Eleven country(I have no allegences to either team), but I like it when these 2 teams play early. It usually starts the season off with a bang...And it's more of focal game, vs. being played later in the season. Although the loser finds themselves in an early "hole"....

what are to's? if you give johnson a 2 year 3.5 mill deal, then we should go for it and not look back. every team needs a guy like him in the 2 spot. and kiko probably wont stay, i know that. You realize that NJ is finishing up a 3 year/$16.5 million Nick Johnson 1b 3 years/$16.5M (2007-09) 3 years/$16.5M (2007-09) signed extension with Washington 3/06 07:$5.5M, 08:$5.5M, 09:$5.5M acquired by Florida in trade from Washington 7/31/09 1 year/$3.2M (2006) re-signed 1/06 (avoided arbitration) may earn up to $0.25M in performance bonuses for: 130-150 games, or 510-590 plate appearances 1 year/$1.45M (2005), avoided arbitration 1/05 1 year/$1.25M (2004), lost arbitration 2/04 ($1.68M-$1.25M) 1 year/$0.3641M (2003) agent: Rex Gary ML service: 8.041 http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005_01_19_mlbcontracts_archive.html I can't speak for him but that's quite a paycut...

That magic number in the wildcard has to be wrong. We don't have a magic number, unless you're talking about the ones against us. Technically the Rockies could win every game, so there is no amount of games we could win in that case to win the WC. The ones against us....any Marlins losses + Rockies wins drop the "magic number"....I guess I look at it as our "magic number" because if it reaches 0....we're eliminated.... http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/wildcard.jsp

Good news, Phillies got swept. We are 6 games back with 6 games left vs the Phillies. Technically, we are once again in control of our own playoff chances. We're not quite in control of our fate yet....while the Phillies are 6 games in front of us...they've played 2 fewer games and have 7 fewer losses.... Phillies 77-58 Marlins 72-65 http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/ So if we would win out, and Philly wins out(except for the 6 losses to the Marlins), we would end up 1 game back when the dust settles.... Our "magic number" is currently 21 in the NL East race....20 in the Wild Card race....

Some of us said that Nunez didn't have the composure to be a closer and was much better kept as a setup guy. Well, my worst case scenario is really coming to fruition at the absolute worst time. Nunez is best kept as a fiery setup man, but sometimes when you try and make those guys closers they crumble. Not only is this hurting our ballclub, now we have likely shattered the confidence of a guy who was our best set-up man. We need to switch at closer in any way possible and NOW. Even in his better outings, Nunez is extremely prone to giving up the long ball. Nobody can afford that in the ninth inning. One thing that I was trying to point out before it happened is that once again, Pinto cost us big time. His bb/9 is now 6.8 and that is just terrible. Pinto could not throw a strike if his life depended on it, and his success depends on hitters swinging at bad pitches. Fortunately for him, that happens semi-frequently and results in strikeouts or poor contact. But a pitcher's success can't rely solely on hitters chasing bad pitches, because (as the 6.8 bb/9 shows) there are a good amount of hitters at the major league level that simply won't chase bad pitches when they are smart enough to know they are coming. While I know the focus is going to be on Nunez because he blew it in the ninth, we hadn't even allowed any runs to score until Pinto came in and opened the door with his poor pitching. This simply has to stop- Pinto will continue to hurt this team until he is removed from the roster. Pinto has seriously regressed this year, and I don't expect him to get better than what he is now because the league knows he can't throw a strike. And, as Logan Kensing showed us earlier this year, pitchers don't magically developed command overnight like some of this board have been hoping. Nunez has blown 3 leads as a "closer." Nunez blew 3 leads before becoming the closer. This closer stuff is crap. He is who he is, regardless of the role he's in. Setup...closer...at the end of the day, it's 1 inning with the lead late in the game. The 2 runs given up today in the 8th, meant just as much as the 3 that were given up in the 9th. Being the closer is different than other roles in the bullpen. The mental stress is much higher on players and thats why some guys just can't handle the closer role at all, while guys like Joe Borowski manage to be employed as a closer even though they aren't even that good of a reliever- it's because some guys can handle the mental stress while others can't. Guillermo Mota, Octavio Dotel, Latroy Hawkins, these guys were ace setup men who pitched poorly in the closer role despite having much better stuff than many closers. I know it seems like the 8th/9th should be the same, but the mental challenge of being the guy to shut the door just is something that not all relievers experience. And it's why you want somebody composed to take over that role- so they don't crumble when things are starting to go wrong. I have a problem with this also....although I am open to any way of thinking. 2 runs were scored by the Nats in the bottom of the 8th. I don't like giving up runs at any time of the game but.... We score 2 runs in the top of the 9th....take the lead....now the Nats score 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th....if all things are as you say they are(2 runs vs. 3 runs are equal/or meant just as much)....why did the game end? I give closers more credit(I'm not supporting the way saves are earned). I'm saying it's important to have someone "shut the door" at the end of the game. Because if they don't....your offense has less of a chance to comeback....Today we had no chance(after Nunez)...yet we had a chance in the 9th(after Pinto,Colero)...

NJ really hit the crap out of that one...

HRamirez #21....100th career....