Marlins' offense still inconsistent

 

Florida, which has struggled to find consistency on offense, mustered two runs two days after scoring 15 against Chicago.

 

BY KEVIN BAXTER

 

kbaxter@herald.com

 

ANAHEIM - Will the real Marlins please stand up?

 

Are they the team that scored five or more runs in an inning a big league-best 15 times this season?

 

Or are they the team that scored two or fewer runs in a game 19 times?

 

The answer, of course, is they're both.

 

''It's really hard to put a finger on the offense,'' hitting coach Bill Robinson said. ``We just have to put a streak together where we do what we're capable of night in and night out.''

 

Friday night was not one of those nights, and as a result the Marlins wound up 3-2 losers to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in an 11-inning interleague game played before a sellout crowd of 43,767 at Angel Stadium.

 

Jeff DaVanon's line-drive single to right-center off Jim Mecir (1-2) with one out in the 11th scored Vladimir Guerrero from second base with the winning run.

 

Guerrero started the winning rally with a ground-ball single to left, then took second when Steve Finley was hit by a pitch.

 

The Marlins, meanwhile, got 11 hits off five Angels pitchers, but the only one that counted was Miguel Cabrera's two-run home run into the rock pile beyond the left-center field wall the third inning.

 

The team spent the rest of the night getting runners on base only to leave them there, stranding 13 in all.

 

Marlins starter Brian Moehler, who hasn't won in more than a month, deserved a better fate Friday after holding the Angels to five hits through 7 2/3 innings and to just one run -- on Chone Figgins homer on the third pitch of the game -- into the ninth.

 

But a leadoff double by Garret Anderson, a sacrifice bunt and Alex Gonzalez's wild throw to the plate on a play where he had Anderson beat allowed the Angels to tie the game, sending Moehler to the showers and the game into extra innings.

 

Angel starter Jarrod Washburn, meanwhile, was walking a tightrope all night. He never retired the side in order and allowed two runners to reach base in four of the six innings he pitched. Yet he and a quartet of relievers managed to wiggle out of enough jams to keep their team in the game.

 

That put the brakes on a Marlins' offense that was beginning to show signs of life.

 

Leadoff man Juan Pierre, whom many teammates consider the team's catalyst, has shown signs he's about to break out of his first prolonged slump since coming to Florida three years ago. He had a least one hit in five of his past six games before being blanked Friday -- and, fittingly, the Marlins have scored just twice in the two games when Pierre went hitless.

 

Luis Castillo, the team's No. 2 hitter, is even hotter. After missing 18 games in May with a variety of leg problems, Castillo, who had a four-hit night Friday against the Angels, is hitting .345 in June and has scored at least one run in five of his past six games.

 

''When those guys are the top of the order get on, it's a different ballgame,'' pinch hitter Lenny Harris said.

 

``If they get going, they dictate how this ballclub is going to [play].''

 

And then there's three-time All-Star Mike Lowell, who was batting .190 less than a month ago but has hit .349 in in June.

 

UPS AND DOWNS

 

Still, the Marlins' offense is hardly running on all cylinders just yet, and the schizophrenic nature of the lineup never was more apparent than during the first four games of their current road trip.

 

In Chicago earlier this week, the Marlins combined for 24 runs and 31 hits in the first and the last game while in between they were shut out by a pitcher with three career victories coming in.

 

And then, after battering 310-game winner Greg Maddux en route to their biggest offensive performance in nearly two years Wednesday, they were one pitch away from being shut out Friday.

 

''That's baseball, man. That's why you play the game,'' Pierre said. ``Every day, you see something different.

 

``It's a funny game. You can do everything right and not get the results that you want. That's the real frustrating part.''

 

There is one constant, however.

 

''If you don't hit well,'' Delgado said, ``you're going to lose.''

Inconsistent = bad

 

Bad = inconsistent