Can the Marlins keep it up?

Full Disclosure Alert: I have NOT watched an inning of a Florida Marlins game this season.

When you live in Indiana, you’re more likely to find a guy named Hank riding a John Deere on TV than Josh Johnson. So I warn you that my thoughts are based off of watching SportsCenter highlights and perusing box scores.

Here’s a question for you Fish Fanatics: Can the Marlins continue to compete with the Phillies and Braves?

The Fish tend to follow the same script ever year; they start out with a bang and fizzle as the summer wears on. Given some obvious structural deficiencies (bad bullpens, not enough depth, etc.), they haven’t been able to turn fast starts into bona fide postseason runs.

At the season’s quarter pole, the Marlins are 12-3 in one-run games. There is no way they’re going to keep that pace up. Since the current road trip started, Mike Stanton has started to heat up, hitting three home runs this week. The Marlins need Hanley Ramirez to hit like Hanley Ramirez, though. His early season struggles have been puzzling.

There are certainly reasons to think this will be the season the Marlins break through.

They actually have a bullpen. A really good one, in fact. The pen’s 2.49 ERA is the second-best in the Majors, which is quite the turnaround for a unit that could only be described as ‘head-scratching bad’ the past few seasons. If they can continue to hold onto early-game leads in August, the Fish should continue to keep pace.

For now, they sit just one game behind the NL East-leading Phillies. But if this season is going to bleed into October, Florida is going to need to tighten up the offense a little bit.