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06/23/2006: "I've Got Your Cream Puff Right Here ..."

You knew someone would do it. All those nice fat intentional walk pitches floating just inches outside of the strike zone - you knew someday someone would make a mistake and one would get jumped on by a frustrated batter. And considering the amazing way the Marlins have been playing lately, I guess I shouldn't be surprised it would be them.

As a Marlins fan, I feared this season would suck. For reasons that were almost understandable, last year's team - one that flirted with the wild card until fading late - was dismantled in the offseason, leaving only Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to be joined this season by a cast of rookies. You could hope that some of the untried players would catch on - just as Willis and Cabrera had during the unlikely World Series run in '03 - but no one expected the team to light it up as they have lately.

So when the Fish had their nine-game winning streak broken Wednesday by the Orioles and then went down 5-1 last night, it was easy to figure things were just back to what they should be. Imagine the surprise I felt when we rallied to tie against their closer - who blew his first save in 19 tries. But that was just a prelude to the real fun.

When you have one slugger on a team of rookies, you gotta figure he's not gonna see a lot of good pitches to hit. That has certainly been the case for Cabrera, who's not the most patient person. So when he came up in the 10th with a runner on second and the catcher stood up to signal the pitcher to walk Cabrera intentionally, he apparently decided enough was enough.

The ball floated in the air, much closer to the plate than Miguel Cabrera anticipated. It was supposed to be the first pitch of an intentional walk, yet Cabrera wasn't about to let this one get to the catcher.

And so he took a swing at it.

Cabrera stepped into the soft, outside pitch and drove it to center, scoring Ramirez with the go-ahead run on a swing more likely to be seen in the movies than the major leagues.

I saw the video of the pitch last night on SportCenter. It looked just like on of those beer-league slow pitch tosses that usually get driven deep into the night. I'm not sure who was more surprised, Cabrera or the catcher, but it was clear who recovered first. The Marlins went on to score twice more and win 8-5.

A team that was predicted to lose 110 games this season, the Marlins are flirting with .500 as 31-38. After really sucking for the first 40 games as their rookies figured out how to play in the majors, the team is playing like seasoned veterans. Last night's victory was the largest Marlins comeback since 1998, and included the majors' first back-to-back pinch hit home runs since 2001.

Now, reality could come crashing home when they visit the Yankees for three games starting tonight. But if they were to lay the wood to the Bombers, people might start to think there's something pretty special going on in South Florida - again.

That's why they play the games ...