Monday, August 29, 2005

And Down the Stretch They Come...

Today officially begins the Marlins' trek through what many have called the toughest schedule to finish the season of any of the NL Wild Card contenders. The Fish may be at home, but the Cardinals' road record (42-23) is better than the Marlins' home record (38-28). St. Louis is in the middle of a 13-game road trip, so far winning 3 out of 4 from Pittsburgh and 2 of 3 from Washington - they did lose 3 of 4 to the Cubs at Wrigley August 11-14, but that was after a 3-game sweep of the Brewers at Miller Park. So for the month of August they're 9-5 on the road. The Marlins split their series at Busch Stadium at the start of August, but the Fish's 2 losses were from the 2 pitchers who're supposed to be starting tonight (Carpenter) and tomorrow (Morris). Meanwhile the Nats, who got swept by the Braves in Atlanta last month, return for a 4-game set. Tomorrow Philly and the Mets will smack each other around, and the lucky Astros gets to host Cincinatti (1-5 in Houston this year, 4-9 overall).

MORE FUN FACTS: "Juan Pierre....(is) hitting .406 in the past eight games and has scored six runs and stolen five bases in the past five games....Florida has hit just seven home runs in its past 23 games and all seven have been hit by either Carlos Delgado or Miguel Cabrera. No other Marlin has homered since Aug. 5." (PostDispatch)

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