Bad Loss Shows Fredi is Not Ready

There is no such thing as a good loss. I know some will say there it, but there really isn't. You lost.

Tonight's game against the Freds was a good example of terrible. Mitre started off demonstrating what that adjective means, but pulled it together and got through 6 innings while only surrendering the 3 runs from the first inning. The Marlins' bats woke up and they took back the lead to make it 5-3.

Then it all went wrong.

Armando Benitez comes trotting out and immediately gives up hit after hit after hit. Nothing was fooling the Freds batters, Benitez might as well have been throwing beach balls up there. Yet, Fredi did not budge. He kept Benitez in and the lead evaporates and becomes a 7-5 deficit.

Now, we could go on about how the Marlins threated to come back and that they made some noise but ultimately, they still choked. Then again, why blame it all on the team when it was clearly Benitez who couldn't do anything other then throw ropes at the plate.

Yet, even that wouldn't be right. Fredi Gonzalez never made a move. Never even blinked. Tommy Hutton, long time Marlins announcer, was on the border of criticizing Fredi but let's face it, the things he said on the air were scathing criticisms, if we want to twist words like media pundits do.

And all that criticism is worth it because the Marlins never got to keep that lead and really it shouldn't have gotten that bad. In the 7th Tank loaded up the bases and Gonzalez had nothing else better to do but trot out Justin Miller. And quicker than a case of beer at a frat party, the Freds bases-loaded threat was over.

Yet, in the 8th Fredi went too long with Benitez and it cost his team a win. The lack of direction and the unwillingness to embrace confrontation when needed is keeping Fredi from growing as a manager and retarding the growth of this young Marlins ballclub. Of that, I am totally convinced now.