It was a game we weren't supposed to win... and we didn't. We had our Minor League journey-man fifth starter Jason Shiell on the mound, and he pitched like, well, a Minor League journey-man fifth starter - five innings, six hits, three runs. Actually, that's not too bad. Shiell's bid for a win wasn't helped any by the increasingly ineffective pitching of Oscar Villarreal. Villarreal wasn't helped any by a (perhaps nervous about all the trade rumors) Wilson Betemit error.

I didn't get to watch the game, just the feed from MLB's Gameday. Oh well, you can't win every series, but we should at least be beating the Marlins. We are 6-6 against them on the season with six more games to play. To be a contender, we have to start beating up on these young and less experienced teams. We may have been throwing our sixth fifth starter on the season, but we still could have scored some runs for him.

Jeff Francoeur hit his 20th homerun in the seventh inning, a solo shot that couldn't ignite any more offense. No one else seemed to want to hit the ball.

We get Pedro tomorrow night against HoRam. We need a good start to the Mets series. If we can sweep them, then we're back in the hunt for the division. If they sweep us, then we might be out of the hunt for the wild card. This will be a huge series, perhaps the biggest yet this season.

Box Score >>

Florida 6, Atlanta 1 at Turner Field
Florida Record: (47-53)
Atlanta Record: (48-53)

Winning pitcher - Scott Olsen (9-4)
Losing pitcher - Jason Shiell (0-2)