Marlins Fly By Blue Jays

Knowing that the Florida Marlins were 14-4 all-time entering the cross-national series in Toronto, there was plenty of confidence that the Marlins would continue their success against the Blue Jays. On Sunday afternoon, the Marlins turned that possibility into a reality by sweeping the Jays. This is the third time since the begining of inter-league play that the Marlins have swept the Blue Jays.

The Fish gained two games on Philly, New York and Atlanta who all went 1-2 in their respective series. They now sit in 3rd place, just one game under .500 and 5.5 games behind division leader Philadelphia. The Marlins are 9-5 in the month of June.

All three Marlins starters pitched well with Josh Johnson pitching a complete game on Sunday afternoon. Florida's bullpen has been over used this year in part to a lot of injuries in the starting rotation. It's a breath of fresh air to see our starters getting back into form.

The starting five is one of the most dangerous rotations in the league. It's hard to find a gap when everyone is on. The emergence of Sean West, the Cy Young-like pitching from Josh Johnson, the maturing of Andrew Miller, the consistency of Chris Volstad and the return of the real Ricky Nolasco has opponents and analysts talking about the Marlins living up to their pre-season expectations.

Here's a look at their game stats:

• Friday: Ricky Nolasco - 6.0 IP/5 H/2 ER/1 BB/9 K/ND
• Saturday: Sean West - 5.2 IP/4 H/4 ER/4 BB/ 0 K/WIN
• Sunday: Josh Johnson - 9.0 IP/7 H/3 ER/3 BB/6 K/WIN

No Blue Jays starter made it out of the 4th inning this weekend thanks to the Marlins' bats coming alive and it was more than the extra hitter in the line up. They reverted back to their small ball strategy and tagged Toronto pitchers for double-digit hits in each game, including a season high 18 hits on Sunday. Home runs still accounted for 11 of the 24 runs scored.

There was one negative in the Marlins-Blue Jays series this weekend. The Marlins showed a weakness when it came to capitalizing on their opportunities and putting the nail in the coffin. They stranded 25 runners this series and 21 runners the previous series against the Cardinals. This has been an issue all season long.

If the Marlins want to continue their win streak they are going to need to keep the runs coming. The Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox lead the Majors in runs scored, respectively. Florida begins a three-game series at Boston on Tuesday before coming back to the Shark Tank for a three-game series with New York over the weekend.

On a high note, Cody Ross was able to raise his average by 13 points to .271. Ross went 6-13 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs in the series. Ronny Paulino went 4-5 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs on Sunday and raised his average to .281.