Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Nationals were feeling pretty good not too long ago about the progress they were making in the National League East. Not to say they weren’t because they have been better but there is an interesting contrast between they and the Miami Marlins. The Marlins haven’t gotten credit for being anything but MLB’s worst team all year long. While they certainly deserve that billing, they enjoy proving now and then that they are better than their record suggests.
That was the case Friday as Nathan Eovaldi shut down the Nats after the first inning and the Marlins creamed Stephen Strasburg for the rest of the night. It wasn’t what I would call a statement making win necessarily. I’m sure most of the Nationals have full respect for the Marlins and what they can do but to those in the press it is good to see the Nationals get bested by the worst team. It shows that there is more balance in baseball than most think there is.
Eovaldi might not get the same coverage that Strasburg does in other words but he is just as impressive for most of his starts this season. With all of the talk about the Marlins needing to trade all of their people away it seems interesting to me that they are only a year or two away from being good enough to compete if the management keeps going in the same direction. In that way games like this are statement games. It is a way of telling the rest of the National League, “Get ready boys, we’ll be competing in a year or two.” Way to go Marlins.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
