MIAMI — The Atlanta Braves, who started the weekend as an 0-9 laughingstock in baseball, have three more wins at Marlins Park than the Miami Marlins do.
That’s a major problem for the Marlins. They are 0-5 at Marlins Park and face the daunting challenge of having to next play the Washington Nationals, who start a four-game series here on Monday night.
The Marlins will start ace Jose Fernandez on Monday, so perhaps that will break the stadium jinx while also giving Miami its first win all season by a starting pitcher.
So why are the Marlins losing at home? And why are they just 3-7 overall?
For starters, four of their five starting pitchers have ERAs over 5.00. The exception has been rookie Adam Conley, a left-hander who has a 3.86 ERA and has been a bright spot.
Of the starters, the biggest concern is Jarred Cosart, who allowed six walks on Sunday and was bad from the beginning, giving up four runs in a 34-pitch first inning. After the game, Cosart said his issue was mental, and that’s never a good sign.
The bullpen also misses valuable left-hander Mike Dunn, who hopes to return soon. Fire-balling right-hander Carter Capps is out for the year, and that is the type of devastating loss the Marlins are just not deep enough organizationally to absorb.
The Marlins don’t have a ton of power and have hit just six homers in 10 games. Worse yet, their one true power source, right fielder Giancarlo Stanton, is in a dreadful slump.
Stanton, who has averaged 32 homers for the past five years, went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts on Sunday. He has struck out six times in the past two games and is batting .211 with two homers.
He looks helpless at the plate right now.
Finally, the managing and coaching staff have not been and are not going to be miracle workers. Because manager Don Mattingly is a big name and because he brought in a big-name hitting coach in Barry Bonds, the coaching hires got a lot of hype in spring training.
Forget that. The reason teams win games, for the most part, is about the players. Coaching can help, but Mattingly is still learning this team and has actually hurt more than anything else so far.
Case in point is the utilization of free-swinging Marcell Ozuna in the two-hole instead of Martin Prado. That was called out in this space on Opening Day.
On Sunday, Mattingly put Prado in the two-hole and dropped Ozuna to six. True, it did not result in a win, but Ozuna is not the patient-type hitter who would be ideal batting behind speedy Dee Gordon.