The Miami Marlins are 15-28 but no need to panic. Take a trip out west to Los Angeles, California to face the Los Angeles Dodgers and regroup per se. That was the thought process on the flight out to “LA-LA.” The Marlins finished the four-game series versus the Dodgers 1-3 overall with the next stop in Oakland for two games.
I Googled the unwritten rules of baseball, and I could not find the unwritten rules. I state this because the series out west became chippy in the second game loss to the Dodgers. Plus, the Marlins have not been playing well collectively. Miami needed it as they won the game the next day, its one win in the series.
The Marlins have been in a slump that has included two five-game losing streaks and now they have gone four weeks since posting back-to-back wins, with the last instance coming on April 23 — a Sunday.
In Friday’s game, Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton led off the ninth and Dodgers reliever Ross Stripling’s first pitch went behind his lower back. Stanton did not charge the mound, but began a slow walk forward as players streamed onto the field. Stripling also said the pitch simply got away from him.
This one had a little bit of everything: Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood extending his scoreless streak, balls leaving the yard and players clearing the benches. But the benches clearing benefited the Marlins.
Marlins skipper Don Mattingly and Dodgers coach Bob Geren (former Yankees teammates) exchanged heated words during the benches-emptying ninth and had to be restrained from each other. Mattingly said he was initially upset that the Dodgers were swinging at 3-0 pitches in the eighth with a 5-0 lead: “When Geren is out there yelling at my guy, he has to go through me,” Mattingly said. “We aren’t going to have that.”
Don Mattingly was ejected. Playing his former team. Do something to get the fish cooking. However, Mattingly’s ejections could earn him a spot in the record books. The manager of the Marlins was ejected on Friday night for the fourth time this season, putting him on pace to shatter the single-season record for heave-hos by a major-league manager, an unofficial mark that has stood for 112 years. John McGraw was tossed 13 times in 1905, according to Baseball Almanac.
The wins need to be greater than the ejections though.
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