It wasn’t the most orthodox way of how to win a 3-game series but for the first week of baseball the Marlins figured out a motivation tool to start the season 4-2. The first 2 series of the season had the Marlins losing in game 1 each time, only to come back and win the next 2. They got romped on Opening Day to the Mets, but despite the bullpen showing it’s flaws the Marlins battled back taking the next 2 games despite giving up a 6-1 lead in the 7th to walk 9 batters on Wednesday night. They next faced the Dodgers in their home opener on Friday and lost 7-3, but the Fighting Fish didn’t let that stop them from coming back again with a walk-off win on Saturday and Jorge Cantu’s heroics on Sunday.

The guy they call JOR-GEE is having another fabulous start to the season with an impressive first week. He has come away with at least one RBI in all 6 games, including the 5 RBIs he had Sunday to bring his total to 10. Not to mention his average is a cool .320 with 2 HR and 4 doubles, so it’s no secret Cantu loves April. His stats from last season for the month of April were .365 avg with 7 HR, 22 RBI, 5 doubles and hitting behind the Hanley Ramirez doesn’t hurt either. Both those players alone have the ability to lift the team on it’s shoulders and produce runs like the 3-4 combo of Chase Ugly and Ryan Coward.

The Marlins sit in 2nd place in the NL East behind the Phillies (5-1), who play the Nationals 6 times in their first 9 games. I’m not arguing with the scheduling because the Marlins played the Nationals 6 times in the first 12 games last season, ending up 11-1 to start. Although, the Marlins haven’t been to the playoffs since 2003 and its still an even match where as the Phillies are unfortunately back-to-back NL champs. Which makes me ask why should they play the team with over 100 losses last couple years to start a season? It isn’t really the most competitive of match-ups to start defending the NL title to, and if anything the league wants the Phils to jump out at 9-0 and let everyone else play catch-up all year long.

So depending on what happens with the Marlins against the Reds, as well as the aforementioned Nationals/Phillies series, this weekend’s upcoming games should be a blast. The Marlins come to Philly to face off for the first time this season and I’ll be there for damn sure to support my Fighting Fish, despite the sea of Red and cliche Boo’s I will be surrounded by. On that note, bring on week two!