Views From The Cheap Seats – August 30th, 2017

Yeah that’s what I love to see. A sweep! The Marlins kept on trucking taking care of business at home against the San Diego Padres. Meanwhile Gonecarlo kept up the good work making it to number 50 as of Monday morning. Are the Marlins back? I’d like to think so.

Stanton went bonkers Friday going yard not once but twice with Marcell Ozuna following suit with a homer of his own. The squad held on to win 8-6 despite Adam Conley struggling, giving up 5 earned runs. At least Ziegler got his ninth save.

Game 2 was more of a pitcher’s duel. Odrisamer Despaigne took to the mound and gave us a beauty, lasting 6 innings and keeping San Diego to just 1 run scattering 3 hits. That’s the kind of pitching we’re going to need down the home stretch. The Marlins broke through in extras with a sac fly from Miguel Rojas bringing Derek Dietrich home for the win in the 11^th hour, or inning rather.

On the series finale, the fighting fish kept pouring it on as Stanton had another big day going 3 for 3 with 3 RBIs including dinger 5 0. And a double. Dietrich airmailed his own into the bleachers as Christian Yelich smacked a triple, eventually scoring on the same play due to an error by the second basemen. Bust out the brooms, stick a fork in them and get ready for that slice of pizza, Marlins win 6-2.

Eat. Sleep. Win. Repeat.

Star Performances

“Cruz” was phenomenal this weekend getting 8 hits, 3 of them home runs, along with 8 RBIs. He accounted for HALF our runs this series, HALF. A gift from the baseball gods themselves.

THIS IS 5️⃣0️⃣!#StantonSmash | #FishWin pic.twitter.com/p1QP5pClhf

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) August 27, 2017

But Stanton wasn’t the only one displaying power, Ozuna had two monster dongs of his own raising his season total to 31. Funny enough much earlier in the season, like way before All-Star Break, I had him as the leader in homeruns at the end of the year. Forgive me for my transgressions. Ozuna ended the weekend tilt with 4 RBIs of his own.  A quarter of our output.

While our big guys flashed power, Dee Gordon flashed speed swiping 3 bags against the Padres while notching 5 hits and 4 runs. Take a bow Flash, you did great.

I have to give the pitchers a shout, specifically Dan Straily and Odrisamer Despaigne. Straily went 6-strong playing 2 run ball and scattering 6 hits although one admittedly was a homerun. Other than that it was a good outing. Despaigne had a similar stint going 6-deep and giving up 1 run on 3 hits. Keep up the good work boys, the arms will make us or break us.

Stat of the Week

Giancarlo Stanton is the 6th player in MLB history to hit 50 HRs in his team’s first 130 games.

“Who is: Giancarlo Stanton?”#JeopardySports #Marlins pic.twitter.com/ZspD19ppFD

— Jeopardy! Sports (@JeopardySports) August 30, 2017

Unfortunately Miami did not move up much in the standings and prior to Monday’s game remained 4.5 games out from the last wildcard spot. Nobody said it was going to be easy. But let us rejoice on the team’s fortunes despite a less than ideal situation both from the front office and the starting rotation. I guess that’s how it really is, you get to where you wanted and naturally you just want more. Call it greedy, call it striving but now that we’re .500, why not fight for more? I feel it man, I feel the magic more than Harry Potter ever did.

But we have to keep in mind we’re entering the final stretch, September baseball. You can bet both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks will do what they can to not relinquish so much as an inch to us, or any other team for that matter. In fact, just before the season ending series with the Atlanta Braves we’ll be going on the road to face BOTH of the current wildcard holders. If we’re not out of it by then, it could be the defining moment for the team this regular season. But first, the NL East top dog Washington Nationals await and you can bet they won’t just lie down for us and would love to shove us back down a peg. 6 games remain against the Nats and they’ll sure be doozies.

While I feel we can achieve our post-season ambitions, the organization will need to call in reinforcements from the minors, arms especially. The bullpen is going to need depth in the face of the workload and it can give us a chance to preserve our better relievers, granted if the new ones give up runs left and right the argument becomes irrelevant. Still, call-ups seem likely and while they’re at it they can bring Brian Anderson to play at third, or another position. Need to keep our lanes open, especially if we’re going to win. But if that’s not enough we can call Roger Dorne and Wild Thing and get us a shiny new trophy. Until next time, stay frosty my friends.

That’s good company. Hopefully Bour can come back for a late playoff push! @Marlins pic.twitter.com/Gy5ed10WtL

— Carlos Valiente (@carlosvaliente4) August 26, 2017

Views from the Cheap Seats is a biweekly segment where a Miami raised sports nut recaps, screams and analyses a week’s worth of games giving a toast, or the finger, to his hometown team depending on their performance. A truly hopeful but always realistic fan putting thoughts to pen to paper and always striving to improve. Be bold, be good, be you.

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