Sep. 8--ST. LOUIS -- Three weeks and 19 games to go, and the Marlins Get your Marlins Tickets now! season still matters, albeit for the wrong reasons.
After Sunday's 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, the focus is firmly on things such as home run history and making life miserable for the two teams they figured to be competing with for the National League East crown.
Nine of their remaining games, including the first of three tonight in Philadelphia, are against the Phillies and Mets. Those two teams entered their Sunday night meeting separated by one game in the standings.
Like last year, the Marlins will have their say as to who advances. They took two of three from the Mets in the final regular-season series to knock them out of the playoffs. A similar demolition job is what they're playing for at this point.
"We'll take them like we did the last series in New York last year," left fielder Josh Willingham said. "It'll probably be a playoff atmosphere because those guys are more in it than we are. If we can't be in it, you obviously want to be a spoiler.
"We were out of it a long time ago last year. This year, the past month went south for us. You have to play consistently the whole year in order to make the playoffs, and we haven't done that, especially offensively the last month."
The consistency with which Mike Jacobs, Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez have put balls in the seats has positioned them for a noteworthy accomplishment. Uggla hit his 30th Saturday and Jacobs reached the milestone Sunday. Ramirez is one shy of giving the Marlins their first trio of 30-homer players.
No National League team has fielded three 30-homer infielders. The only American League team was the 2001 Oakland Athletics with Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez.
"Those are good individual feats," manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Our team goal is not that. It's for us to get wins and playoffs, but at the end of the year those are good numbers for those guys."
Treanor hurtMatt Treanor said he felt "snake bitten" after fouling a ball off his left knee in his first at-bat Sunday. Making his first start since Aug. 24, Treanor was unable to remain in the game when in the bottom of the second he couldn't crouch.
In need of surgery to repair tears in the muscles around his left hip, Treanor has 16 at-bats and appeared in eight games since coming off the disabled list Aug. 6.
"The offensive part I could have got through with a banged up knee, but if I wasn't able to catch and throw, no reason for me to be out there," said Treanor, adding X-rays taken during the game were negative. "Frustrating."
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