Miami Marlins seek consistency at home after up-and-down trip – Sun Sentinel

though it ended well, all is not well as the Marlins return from a star-crossed, 10-game cross-country trip.

At the same time, all is not dire for an underachieving team with a penchant for squandering late-inning leads that has created an unsettled bullpen situation, a misfiring middle of the lineup and a fresh injury concern in an already stretched starting rotation.

Had Steve Cishek delivered as usual in his first 2 ½ seasons as closer instead of turning ninth-inning leads into back-to-back crushing defeats at San Francisco and Los Angeles, the Marlins would have had a winning mark on visits to three of the toughest opponents in the National League. Instead they went 4-6, and another potential victory slipped away in Washington when the bullpen failed to hold two late leads.