In the forth of our season long series, “The View from the Philly Pressbox” takes a look at the Miami Marlins series. The Marlins came in to the series with a 1-8 record and clearly struggling at the plate, especially without their best player Giancarlo Stanton. The Marlins do have some decent young pitching as the Phils found out. This was an extremely important series for the Phillies in an effort to get Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay back on track against a team that’s weak at the plate.

 In the opener on Friday night the Phils sent lefty John Lannan out against Ricky Nolasko. The pitchers battle did not disappoint. Lannan allowed 3 hits and a run through 6 innings while walking 1 and striking out 2. Nolasko also went 6 innings allowing 7 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and recorded 1 strikeout. The Phils bullpen of Antonio Bastardo, Mike Adams, Phillippe Aumont and Jonathan Papelbon threw 4 shutout innings allowing just 1 hit with Aumont getting the win and Papelbon his 2^nd save of the season. The Marlins bullpen matched the Phils until the 10^th inning allowing 0 hits and 0 walks in the 3 innings prior to the 10^th when the Phils tagged Jon Rauch for 3 hits, 2 runs and the 3-1 loss. Ben Revere, Ryan Howard and Dom Brown all had 2 hits in the game.

 Game 2 saw the Phils again struggle to score runs against Marlins pitching. This time it was Jose Fernandez turn against Hamels. Fernandez allowed just 2 hits and 2 walks with 5 k’s in his 6 innings of work lowering his ERA to 0.82. Hamels also pitched well. He allowed just 3 hits, a run, 3 walks with 5 k’s in 6 innings of work. Hamels trouble came when he allowed a triple to the #8 hitter, Adeiny Hechavarria, and followed that up by allowing a single by the pitcher Fernandez to knock in the run. The Phillies bullpen of Bastado and Adams again pitched a perfect 7^th and 8^th before Aumont allowed an unearned run in the bottom of the 9^th on an error by Chase Utley that allowed the winning run to score.

 Game 3 of the series matched Halladay against Kevin Slowey, and again the Phils had trouble scoring runs. They did bang out 12 hits in the game but needed a pinch hit home run by Laynce Nix to pick up the 2-1 victory, the 200^th of Halladays career. Halladay line for the game was 8 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 2 k’s with only 87 pitches. Paplbon threw a hitless 9^th to pick up his 3^rd save. Ryan Howard had 3 hits in the game while Revere and Freddy Galvis adding 2 each.

 The bright spots of the Marlins series:

• Halladay, Hamels and Lannan all pitched very well. Hopefully it was solid pitching and not poor hitting.
• The Phils bullpen of Bastardo, Adams, Aumont and Papelbon were solid allowing just 1 unearned run in the series which led to a loss.
• Howard was 6-12 in the series raising his average up to .277.
• Revere was 4-12 climbing up to .240.
• Michael Young continues to carry the top average on the team going 3-10 in the series and hitting .357.
• Nix pinch home run was a game winner.

 Areas to improve:

• The Phils struggled to score just 6 runs in the series but only allowed 4 and won the series 2 games to 1.
• Jimmy Rollins was 0-8 in the series and was used only as a pinch hitter on Sunday. Rollins average is down .261.
• Chase Utley struggled in the series going just 2-14. Utley’s average has dropped to .277.
• The Phils struck out 17 more times against Marlin pitching. This is down from the 8.8 per game they were averaging but still too many. (96 in 12 games)

Next Up:

The Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati. The Phils will throw red hot Cliff Lee in the opener, followed by Kyle Kendrick and Lannan. The Reds are struggling, having lost 5 in a row, but will be a formidable challenge for The Fightin’s.

 Looking forward:

Update: We didn’t fair too well in our prediction of 2 out of 3 from the Royals, instead losing 2 out of 3. We picked the Phils to win 2 of 3 from the Mets and they did. We picked 2 out of 3 against the Marlins and they did that. A sweep would’ve been better. The Phils are 6-6 heading to Cincinnati where we think they could struggle and predicted losing 2 of 3. We hope we’re wrong! If the Phils can win 2 of 3 instead that will put them in a good position heading to St Louis with Hamels, Halladay, Lee and Kendrick lined up for the 4 game series.

 The Fightin’s play a total of 27 games in the month of April. This includes 3 at home against the Mets, 3 in Florida, 3 in Cincinnati, 4 back home against the Cardinals, 4 more at home against the Pirates, 3 at New York and the first game of a series against the Indians in Cleveland on the last day of the month. Here’s what we see from the Philly Pressbox, 16-11 or 15-12 at the end of the month. How did we get there? 1-2 Braves, 2-1 Royals, 2-1 Mets, 2-1 Marlins, 1-2 Reds, 2-2 Cardinals, 3-1 Pirates, 2-1 Mets, 1-0 Indians. Losing an extra game to the Cardinals or Pirates wouldn’t be unreasonable. Either way 15 or 16 wins.

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