With their 6th straight loss, the Marlins fall to 11-7 in the NL East and are starting to be labeled “fakes” by the media. The Phillies rolled into town struggling but leave as if riding on rockets. Now, the Marlins must go on a 6 game road trip and venture through NY to see the Mets and off to Chicago to see the Cubs.

It could get worse.

The starting pitching is there, but the bullpen is lost, the defense is showing glaring cracks and the offense is becoming a gimmick. Don’t take my word for it – take MarlinAddict’s. He calls it the Randy St. Claire effect, named after the “Natinals” pitching coach. The Marlins are 6-0 against the team which lost its “O”, appropriately. But when you look at the offensive numbers, you can see the Marlins are taking a nose dive against the rest of their opponents.

This is a troubling stat. Changes need to be made to this lineup – the Marlins started the year off hot and are now on the opposite side of things. Fredi Gonzalez made a huge mistake letting Lindstrom throw 38 pitches on Friday night and it set the tone. The Marlins may have been able to stop the bleeding if not for that move and who knows how this weekend series would have played out? Still, the fact remains that the Marlins are not playing small ball – since they can’t put the ball in play – and they don’t have the firepower to play the long ball consistently enough.

With a struggling bullpen this puts the Marlins in the middle of the league – not on top. So, are we looking at fool’s gold? If the Marlins offense doesn’t make a drastic turnaround soon, like now, then yes. The question is, how long until the front office makes a coaching change?