Fish Bytes

Marlins on cusp of best-ever road trip

    SAN DIEGO -- By sweeping the Giants and Padres in San Francisco and San Diego, respectively, the Marlins are on the brink of having the best road trip any Marlins team has ever had. To do it, they need only win one game in the upcoming Astros series in Houston.

    That would give them seven wins on this out-of-town trek, and no Marlins team has ever won that many contests on a nine-game junket. 6-3 is tops, and it's been done more than a few times. Yes, the Padres are miserably bad. And the Marlins managed to avoid facing Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner during the series in San Fran.

     But they face bad teams on the road every season.

     Before anyone gets too carried away, though, remember that the Marlins barely scraped by the Giants, winning each of those three games by one run. They also pulled out a one-run win in their first game in San Diego. So it's not like they plowed over the Giants and Padres. Even Ozzie Guillen admitted to us today that the Marlins are "catching some breaks." (Like two runs scoring this afternoon when former Marlin John Baker allowed two pitches to get by him for passed balls in the same inning.)

      Another important note: the Marlins won the first six games of a trip once before only to be swept on the final stop. It was April of 2009 -- not even that long ago -- and the Marlins swept the Braves in Atlanta and Nationals in D.C. before being swept themselves in Pittsburgh to conclude that trip.

       Also, as another side note, the franchise record for wins on a road trip is seven, and it's been done twice -- once in 2005 and again in 2007. But one was a 12-game road trip and the other was an 11-gamer.

      Two wins in Houston would eclipse everything, and it would allow the Marlins (14-14) to return home with a winning record overall. 

Milestone Day? Marlins go for sweep in San Diego

      SAN DIEGO -- Ricky Nolasco will be bidding for his 68th career win with the Marlins when he takes the mound here at Petco Park in a bit. That would put him in a tie with Dontrelle Willis atop the franchise's all-time list.

       The Marlins are also going for their second straight series sweep on the road, something they've accomplished only once before on the same trip. They also swept back-to-back three-game sets at Atlanta and Washington to open a trip in 2009 and  With five wins already under their belt on a trip that continues on Monday in Houston, the Marlins can also begin thinking about the team record for most wins on a road trip -- 7. They've done that twice before, going 7-5 on a 2005 trip to Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Tampa Bay and 7-4 during a 2007 trip to Chicago, Milwaukee and Atlanta.

       More on Mark Buehrle's complete game yesterday. It was the first by a Marlins left-hander since Willis tossed a nine-inning shutout against Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2006.

       Here are your lineups:

       Marlins: 1. Jose Reyes, ss; 2. Emilio Bonifacio, cf; 3. Hanley Ramirez, 3b; 4. Logan Morrison, lf; 5. Omar Infante, 2b; 6. Giancarlo Stanton, rf; 7. Gaby Sanchez, 1b; 8. John Buck, c; 9. Ricky Nolasco, p.

       Padres: 1. Will Venable, rf; 2. Mark Kotsay, lf; 3. Chase Headley, 3b; 4. Yonder Alonso, 1b; 5. Orlando Hudson, 2b; 6. Cameron Maybin, cf; 7. John Baker, c; 8. Andy Parrino, ss; 9. Joe Wieland, p.

       Umpires: HP -- Lance Barksdale; 1B -- Fieldin Culbreth; 2B -- Adrian Johnson; 3B -- Gary Cederstrom.