Two series' are hardly enough to predict an outcome of a 162-game season, but the Miami Marlins are proving to be a hot commodity in South Florida, even though the crowd size does not reflect the team's performance.
MIAMI — Take out the pots and pans, folks, and join the happy fans of Little Havana, in south-central Miami, who are celebrating the early success of the Major League Baseball team that everyone usually loves to laugh at.
People who know baseball are not laughing now.
The 5-1 Miami Marlins are in first place and show resiliency and tenacity as they have won games by both coming from behind and starting early and leading for nine innings.
When you travel to Calle Ocho -- that's Eighth Street for those not hip to the vernacular -- make sure to do more than chase a hot Cuban coffee and a plateful of guava and cheese pastelitos. After taking Mecca to Vicky Bakery, go see the Marlins. They are well worth the price of admission.
Travel to loanDepot Park and see an exciting, young group of no-names that will be household names by the time the season is over.
The Marlins might be the best kept secret in baseball. You definitely need a scorecard or a program to figure out who the players are, but they are an exciting young team that is as aggressive at the plate as they are on the base paths.
As for pitching, the Marlins' starter has won all five games and the bullpen has been shutting the door on opposing hitters like a kid sent to his room without dinner.
Don't look now, but the most laughable team in South Florida has won five of its first six games and currently sit atop the National League East. They are doing all of this without their only All-Star, Kyle Stowers, whose strained oblique from spring training will sideline him for the first six weeks of the season.
The two-time World Champion Marlins have come out of nowhere to spark this hot start. Though they abused the lowly Chicago White Sox (1-5) this week and the Colorado Rockies (2-4) to start the season last weekend, the Marlins are playing like a team on a mission.
These are teams that would have beaten the Marlins last season as the team lacked the Fighting Fish mentality and found themselves mentally showering before the seventh-inning stretch.
Fans were afraid when starting pitchers Ryan Weathers and Eduardo Cabrera were traded away for minor-leaguers. In the Cabrera trade, the Marlins obtained Owen Caissie, who lit things up for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic and continued his hitting exploits through the first six games of the season.
Caissie's game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Rockies on Sunday sent the fans home in a frenzy.
The Marlins have seen former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara return to his 2023 form. He has thrown 16 innings of shutout baseball through his two starts. He stymied the White Sox on Wednesday, limiting them to three hits in MLB's first complete-game shutout of the 2026 season.
Catcher and designated hitter Liam Hicks has been on fire of late. He went 3-for-4 on Wednesday and hit a two-run shot that's still looking for its way home. He drove in four runs to add to his league-leading RBI total (12).
The biggest problem the Marlins have is they cannot draw fans to the ball park. On Sunday, the Marlins had a little over 6,000 fans in attendance. For Alcantara's historic 10th complete-game shutout Wednesday, just 6,667 were in attendance at loanDepot.
Of those who do attend Miami's games, roughly 30-40 percent are "transplant fans," there to cheer on the other team.
But before the season is over, this Marlins team will start drawing bigger crowds and might even generate a true home-field advantage.
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