When a plan comes together

John Donovan, SI.com

 

John Donovan

SI.com

 

HOUSTON -- If you're looking at the numbers on the page, or at the talent in the clubhouse, the Marlins have a heck of a lot going for them. They have a lineup that hits and gets on base as well as any in the National League. Their pitching staff is stuffed full of live arms, including a Cy Young candidate and a couple of other youngsters who pump out high-90s fastballs like pitching machines gone berserk. Their bullpen is not the best in the league, ERA-wise, but it can be pretty good when it needs to be, and their closer has been fantastic.

 

Still, when you throw all those ingredients together and take the Marlins' season as a whole, there's something ... missing. It's not that they have been at all bad. That'd be unfair. They haven't had a losing streak of more than four games all season.

 

But they haven't been exactly enthralling, either. They haven't been all that good. Their longest winning streak is a modest six games and as recently as mid-August they were just four games above .500.

 

On the whole, the 2005 Marlins have been a frustrating, maddening, overwhelmingly underachieving bunch.

 

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion," said Florida general manager Admin Beinfest. "I guess you have to be thought of to be pretty good to be thought of to be underachieving."

 

That's it exactly. If the Marlins were the Pirates or the Mets or even the Brewers, we'd all think that they were doing just peachy. But the Marlins are a lot more than the Pirates, Mets or Brewers. The Marlins have the talent. They have the experience. They have everything they need to make the postseason, and then some.

 

Now, finally, after winning the first two games against the Astros in a pivotal four-game series here in Minute Maid Park this week, seizing control of the NL wild card in the process, we finally may be starting to see that.

 

Dontrelle Willis won his 21st game of the season in the opener on Monday, throwing his seventh complete game and hitting a home run in another tour de force performance that should put him in the middle of any Cy Young discussion, and Josh Beckett used his dazzling repertoire of pitches to go 7 1/3 impressive innings in Tuesday's 4-2 win over the Astros. Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Delgado, one of the most potent pair of 3-4 hitters in the NL, have provided the power to beat back the Astros, Cabrera smacking one homer and Delgado two in the two games.

 

Willis didn't need any assistance Monday night, but Beckett did on Tuesday. With runners on first and third in the eighth inning, rejuvenated closer Todd Jones coaxed Astros slugger Lance Berkman into a 3-6-3 double play then chopped down the Astros 1-2-3 in the ninth to nail down his 37th save in 39 tries. Jones has a 1.10 ERA.

 

If the Marlins, with all their talent, had played most of the season as they have played here in these first two games, they'd be leading the NL East and everyone in the game would be nodding knowingly at each other right now. But in their first 145 games the Marlins played this way only in spurts. At times, it was hard to find even that.

 

"We were pathetic in the first half," Jack McKeon, the team's fire-from-the-lip manager, said between puffs from his ever-present cigar. "We didn't play like we're playing right now, that's for sure."

 

Said Beckett: "We just kind of stayed afloat."

 

Right now -- and largely over the past three weeks or so as they've made their way to a season-high 11 games above .500 -- the Marlins have started to become what many expected them to be. Willis has been the touchstone of the pitching staff, even as another starter, A.J. Burnett, has faltered after seven straight second-half wins. The bullpen, with Jones at the end, has been eminently reliable.

 

And the offense, which has had trouble scoring runs despite the fact it ranks in the top three in hitting and on-base percentage, has finally shown some consistent signs of life since McKeon dropped third baseman Mike Lowell out of the lineup in late August, moved Cabrera to third, put Jeff Conine in the outfield and installed second baseman Luis Castillo in the leadoff spot in place of the slumping Juan Pierre.

 

The Marlins' recent surge is not all that dissimilar to their 2003 season, when they futzed around for most of the year before breaking out with a 19-8 September, outreaching Houston for the wild card. Florida rolled through the Giants in the division series that year, outlasted the Cubs in a memorable seven-game NL Championship Series, then beat the Yankees in six games for a second World Series title.

 

"We started a little bit earlier [in 2003]," Beckett said. "The good thing is it's in our hands [this time]. We ain't gonna wait for anybody to lose. We just got to go out and beat them."

 

Nobody knows better than the Marlins that this wrestling for the wild card is not over. The Astros, who led the wild card race by a half-game entering the series but have dropped 1 1/2 games behind the Marlins, are scheduled to throw Roger Clemens (the NL's ERA leader) on Wednesday, followed by Andy Pettitte (probably the best pitcher in the NL in the second half) on Thursday.

 

After that daunting double-dip, the Marlins return to South Florida for three games against the resurgent Phillies, who are just a game behind the Marlins. Florida still has six games left with the division-leading Braves, too, including three on the last weekend of the season.

 

"We're playing. We're scrapping," McKeon said. "We're starting to find a way."

 

It's been a long time coming for the Marlins. Fortunately for them, it's come not a moment too soon

 

 

this was from yahoo.com enjoy, it was a pretty good read.

Yeah, good read. :thumbup

Good read, two quotes that stood out to me:

 

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion," said Florida general manager Admin Beinfest. "I guess you have to be thought of to be pretty good to be thought of to be underachieving."

 

and

 

"We started a little bit earlier [in 2003]," Beckett said. "The good thing is it's in our hands [this time]. We ain't gonna wait for anybody to lose. We just got to go out and beat them."

 

Beckett stepping up as a leader? Oh my, now I'm really excited. Finally!