The Miami Marlins have some of the top hitters in baseball.<\/p>\n
That, however, hasn\u2019t stopped them from dropping four of their last five games \u2014 even if they beat the Baltimore Orioles Thursday 4-3 thanks to a walk-off error.<\/p>\n
Still, the Marlins remain four games below .500 with a record of 17-21. How Miami arrived here after at one point being at the top of the National League East standings is worthwhile to examine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for us to hang in there and to win a close game here at home and salvage this series,\u201d manager Clayton McCullough said Thursday evening after the victory. \u201cHopefully this is something that kind of can get us going a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite their record, the Marlins currently own the ninth-best batting average in baseball. Miami\u2019s three best hitters \u2014 Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards<\/a> and Liam Hicks<\/a> \u2014 rank third, seventh and 12th \u2013 in terms of batting average. Hicks\u2019 34 RBI even lead the majors, putting him ahead of stars such as Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Bryce Harper.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of highs and lows,\u201d Hicks said, explaining that he doesn\u2019t want to \u201ctake one game too serious. You can have one bad game then the next day be great. You try to make each game individual and not really combine them all so just move on and try and be a good teammate when you\u2019re not playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n That said, they also have an outfielder in Jakob Marsee<\/a> who has gotten off to equally putrid start. Despite Marsee\u2019s impressive rookie campaign, he\u2019s currently hitting .176, the second worst among qualified outfielders<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I think I\u2019m just missing my pitches, and if I miss my pitches, I get put in a hole and these pitchers have good stuff to put you away,\u201d Marsee said. \u201cThat\u2019s more of a me problem. I have to keep working to tighten up the mechanics and simplifying things.\u201d<\/p>\n Defensively, however, is where some of the issues begin. Generally speaking, the pitching has been OK. The Marlins rank 15th in ERA as well as a surprising sixth in both opponent\u2019s batting average and hits.<\/p>\n That said, the free agent signing of Chris Paddack has seemingly proved to be a mistake. The 30-year-old right-hander posted a 0-5 record prior to being designated for assignment<\/a> on Tuesday. In his five starts, Paddack gave up a team-high 26 earned runs, posting a disappointing 7.63 ERA.<\/p>\n \u201cIt came down to a performance thing,\u201d McCullough said, later adding \u201clooking at Chris\u2019 body of work as a whole, while there were some things under the hood that weren\u2019t as bad as the numbers were showing, I think performance becomes the driving factor.\u201d<\/p>\n