Marlins vs. Cardinals Opening Day post-game thread

This was supposed to be a “hey guys, what a great game!” post-game thread but, unfortunately, it’s the complete opposite. However, since it is Opening Day and I’m in a rather positive mood, let’s bang out the positives of this game first before the negatives. So, umm, let me think.

• Baseball is back
• Josh Johnson didn’t exit the game with an injury
• Hanley Ramirez didn’t exit the game with an injury
• Jose Reyes didn’t exit the game with an injury
• Logan Morrison didn’t tweet
• and finally, the Marlins didn’t play all that bad
  .

They really didn’t. Kyle Lohse struck out only two batters through seven innings and, with his lack of over-powering stuff that isn’t surprising. Since 2007, Lohse hasn’t struck out more than six batters per nine innings, so he’s surviving from the help of his defense. Bad luck by Marlins’ hitters and some nice plays by the Cards’ infield helped Lohse breeze through the first seven, but the Fish did squeeze out a run once the right-hander departed. Until the 8th inning the Marlins had only one hit to their name but, thanks to good old John Buck, they would score a run after an Omar Infante hit.

Josh Johnson’s stuff wasn’t that bad tonight but he was somewhat inconsistent. He shutdown the Cards after giving up three early runs but still didn’t manage to get the job done on his part. I must say, Ryan Webb coming in and giving up a run didn’t help the Marlins’ case, but the ‘pen clearly did a nice job keeping Cardinals hitters in check and preventing them from scoring more than just a run. The Pujols-less lineup, the Cardinals’, went on a hitting spree but also could have done a better job scoring runs. Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman went a combined 1-7 but, sure enough, David Freese would drive a duo of runs in while collecting three hits.

Guys, a loss is a loss but look at the bright side of things — the new ballpark is finally open and we’ve got eighty more games to play in it. Additionally, there are 161 games left in the season, so one loss isn’t that big of a deal. Sure, it would have been nice to win the first ever, official game (ah!!!!!!) on the ground but the Marlins did not.

WPA Graph -

Source: FanGraphs

As the game went on, the Marlins WPA decreased. It wasn’t one of those jagged WPA lines that could easily go either way, no. It was a steep line going downhill (albeit some jaggedness) after every batter. Those of you who are unfamiliar with WPA (win probability added), that’s considered to be pretty bad if you’re a fan of the Marlins.