It felt over…down 5 games with 9 to go (4.5 if the Rockies end up losing tonight), it’s a damn near impossible situation to be in. Teams don’t come back from this. In fact, Baseball Prospectus set the Marlins’ playoff chances at .34833. Less than 1%. Hell, less than 0.5%. It’d be more efficient to just cross them out entirely from the list and move forward calculating the odds of teams with you know, actual chances.
But they won tonight. Somehow. Despite home plate umpire Sam Holbrook’s best attempts to foil the victory (we’re currently trying to pull audio of our boy, color commentator, Tommy Hutton losing his mind in regards to Holbrook), the Marlins rallied from a 6-3 deficit, got 4 consecutive hits in Jorge Cantu at-bats, and a game winning hit from the immortal Brett Carrol (off Brad Lidge, no less. Quick side note, Posnanski style: Carroll is hitting .259/.355/.333 off righties on the year. Who cares how awful Brad Lidge has been this year. Honestly..YOU expected Carroll to get a hit? Seriously?) to keep the season connected to the dripping IV.
One of the reasons we love baseball more than any other sport is because of nights like tonight. Not so much because of the walk-off, we’ve seen plenty of that. But when the end result is a win, it allows for a certain reflection on the season, and a positive one always accompanies the elusive ‘W’, and the writing on the tombstone of this particular Marlins season is one to be damn proud of. They’re not winning the wildcard and they certainly aren’t going to surpass four teams and snatch the wild card. Yet, this season has been wildly successful: Hanley blossomed into the best player in the league not named Pujols, Chris Coghlan put on a show and showed everyone he can absolutely be the everyday second basemen once the inevitable Dan Uggla trade occurs, Josh Johnson stayed healthy and was dominant, and most importantly, the Marlins secured their stadium, and the beautiful sport is here to stay. Forever.
Be proud Marlins fans, it was a fun one.
