Talking Baseball

The Phillies will meet the Florida Marlins this weekend (Fri., Sat., Sun.) for a three game series. This is the first meeting between the two teams this season.

Coming into the series the Phillies sit .5 games behind the Marlins for first place in the NL East. The upstart Marlins have been finding ways to win games this season even after their blockbuster off-season trade sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis packing to Detroit.

There are no big name stars left on this team aside from Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla and Mike Jacobs. The pitching staff is spearheaded by Mark Hendrickson (7-2) and will take on the struggling Brett Myers (2-6) in the series opener Friday night. Hendrickson won a career-high 11 games in 2005 for Tampa Bay. He has 50 career victories to 57 career losses.

The Phillies are in second place in the division and are ahead of the Mets, Braves and Nationals.

The Phillies have won four games in a row, including a sweep of the Rockies, and have won five of their last seven. They split a four game series with the Astros in Houston last weekend.

The Marlins are coming off losing two of three to the New York Mets earlier this week.

This series, which will determine who sits in first place once it is completed on Sunday, is not necessarily a big one for the Phillies as much as it is for the Marlins.

A lot of people expected the Phillies to be hanging around the top of the division all season long but not the Marlins. This is uncharted territory for the majority of the players on this team.

If the Phillies are able to take two of three from the Marlins, or maybe even sweep them, will that cause a deflation in confidence or even an early June swoon for the team from South Florida?

Let’s hope so.

I am all for Tampa Bay being in first place in the AL East. They have worked so hard the past couple of years to get where they are. The Marlins front office is run by idiots and they love to sell off all of their big name, marketable stars once they become too talented.

It worked for Florida in 1997 and 2003 but I don’t think that this type of management can keep bringing world championships to Florida.

The series between the Marlins and Phillies should be an entertaining one to say the least. The two teams are the best in the division and the Phillies are the second-highest run-scoring team in the Majors as we speak.

This series will tell baseball fans across the country whether or not the Marlins are for real. If they can figure out how to pitch to the Phillies offense and keep them from scoring as much as they have over the past couple of days then the Marlins will be successful.

If the Phillies can rocket Marlin pitching then the Phillies will be able to win two or three of the games and knock the Marlins out of first place.

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