Marlins Celebrate Historic Month By Beating Wang (yep)

 

Marlins Celebrate Historic Month By Beating Wang (yep)

By Sean Millerick

 

 

Last night, thanks to another stellar pair of stellar performances by their starting pitching and star slugger Giancarlo Stanton, the Miami Marlins won their 21^st game of the month to move within half a game of the first place Washington Nationals.  Miami is playing at a superb level, essentially finding ways to win at this clip with two starters out of the lineup and only one starter posting a batting average over .300. So here we sit, almost exactly a year removed from the high water mark for the 2011 Marlins.  Last May 26^th, following a series sweep of then imposing San Francisco, the club sta ten games over .500 at 29-19.  What followed was arguably the biggest collapse, and certainly worst month, in baseball history; thirty days later, they had won just five more games. This year though saw a historic month of a different nature all together, with a franchise best 21 wins for a month, aided greatly by Stanton tying Dan Uggla for the club’s one month HR record.  Interestingly enough, and we all know baseball fans love to find wisps of destiny in the stats, this most recent historic month was also kick started by a series against San Francisco.  Just something to think about.

But of far more importance, let’s talk about that pitching match-up last night! Wang versus Johnson!  I mean, this is the stuff that writers dream of.  Well ok, maybe middle schoolers dream of it, but us writers can at least use it as a source of shameless inspiration.  Here’s the top ten list of headlines that could have come out of this game, to be voted on by you the loyal reader; note that some of these are based on fictional outcomes of last night’s game.

1. Washington’s Wang Hit Hard, Stanton Strokes Ball Deep To Left.
2. Bell Blows Johnson’s Lead
3. Guillen Hangs Johnson Out To Dry
4. Flores Goes Down: Who’s Catching Wang For Washington?
5. Johnson To Hot To Handle For Washington
6. Johnson Overcomes Slow Start, Rallies Late
7. Wang Comes Out On Top
8. Johnson Behind Early, Finishes Strong
9. Create your own joke about being a-head in the count
10. Johnson Thrown Out At Second Base