With no apologies whatsoever to the vastly more publicized New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs, the Florida Marlins-- not any of these other four teams--are the defending World Series champions from 2003, and they played like it in Mexico City Saturday night against the Astros. Working at an altitude of 7200 feet, the Marlins did what they had to do at the plate--they got the ball in the air--and in the field--they kept the ball on the ground. They smashed four home runs among fourteen hits and kept the Astros' bats in a slumber that has now lasted eighteen innings in whacking our guys 6-1.

This defeat, as Spring Training games go, was about as decisive as such defeats get. The Astros never got the ball out of the infield in three innings against Darren Oliver, a fly ball pitcher if there ever was one, and despite Jeff Kent's homer in the fourth that cut the Marlins' lead at that time to 2-1 as part of a nine-hit effort from the Houston offense, it felt like the Astros never got the ball out of the infield.

Adding to the frustration, and turning the game into a paradox at the same time, was the reality that the Astros did have chances in this game, but they often came with two out. In the fourth, after Kent finally got a pitch airborne against Oliver for the homer, Lance Berkman was walked and Richard Hidalgo took one for the team to put two men on. That HPB precipitated a pitching change and a Mike Neu wild pitch put runners at 3B and 2B. Jason Lane, however, grounded to 3B, however, re-establishing the pattern Oliver had set. In the fifth, similar circunstances arose. Two straight two-out hits and a walk loaded the bases for Kent, but Neu got him swinging on a 2-2 pitch, and that was the end of that. In the sixth, more frustration angainst Blaine Neal. With one out, an infield hit toward 3B by Hidalgo--doing double duty these days as Houston's RF and as a movie star in a theater near you--and a single to LF by Jason Lane put runners at 1B and 2B for the bottom of the order. But Neal kept Morgan Ensberg's miserable spring going with a strikeout swinging, and he manhandled Raul Chavez the same way to stop the rally dead in its tracks. Not enough grief for you? Houston stroked two hits against Toby Borland in the seventh with one out but, again, Marlin pitching was too tough. Jeff Kent missed a pitch he normally would drive out of sight, popping up instead to the catcher in foul ground behind the plate. Berkman, at least, got the ball in the air to CF, but it was just an out. In four chances through the heart of the game, Houston came up with only one run. Franklyn Gracesqui and Justin Wayne gave up one little bleeder hit each over the final two innings in relief to give the Astros some base traffic, but those hits, like all the others tonight, were quiet ones. For whatever reason--the Marlins pitching being just plain better than people are even now willing to concede, or the long flight down from Florida, or the oxygen-thin atmosphere--there was no snap to the Astros' play tonight, and they got their tails kicked by a Marlin club that's playing well this March at 8-3.

Roger Clemens wasn't sharp Saturday, either, giving up a run on three hits in the first inning, and needing a dazzling stop and flip to SS from 2B Jose Vizcaino for a 4-6 fielder's choice to prevent another run from scoring. Clemens yielded a second-inning single and then three more hits in the third, but the only hit in that third that did damage was a solo homer to RF by Miguel Cabrera. Just as I was was about to praise Wade Miller for a nice comeback effort after giving up five runs in an inning his first time out against the Tigers, the Marlins got to him for two runs and three hits in the fifth inning during his relief of Clemens. The most hurtful of the hits was a Jeff Conine blast to RF which made the score 4-1. Miller settled down in the sixth, giving up only a hit, and benefitted from a nice 7-3 OF double play from Berkman. Clemens I won't worry about at all, unless he gets shelled in his last tune-up before his first start of the season. He's been through such springs before; he's been highly effective at an advanced pitching age for many seasons now; and he'll be there and ready when the bell rings. Miller, whom I hold to be a key to Houston's fortunes this year, is perhaps in a different class from Clemens. I'd like to see him have one or two good outings before April comes. I can't say that I'm worried about him, but I am concerned. You'll recall that he had a fabulous ST a couple of seasons ago only to get shelled in his first start and fall victim to arm trouble shortly thereafter. I hope that there's no arm trouble Miller's trying to pitch through this March, beyond the routine aches and pains every pitcher deals with as part of his lot in a baseball life. I have my fingers crossed and an entire rabbit--not just its foot--on my shelf for good luck in Whitey's case.

Dan Miceli was sharp in a one-hit seventh, but Octavio Dotel's breath was taken away in the eighth by back-to-back homers on consecutive pitches to Hee-Seop Choi and Ramon Castro. The altitude may have been the biggest factor in both hits, but the occasion does remind me and reinforce in me the thought I had over the winter that the Marlins did a pretty shrewd thing in exchanging Derrek Lee for Choi. They couldn't have kept Lee and his salary, and they will miss him in the lineup, but I'm betting Choi will be a productive replacement for him. It was the kind of deal the Braves are usually good at making when they go after a replacement part (although this year's acquisition of J.D. Drew for Gary Sheffield may not be so great a move). Seeing how Choi does in Lee's place will be one of the things that will make watching the Marlins fun once more in 2004. The Phillies and the Braves still get far more pub in the NL East than the Marlins do (and yeah, I keep forgetting about 'em myself), but they can get your attention in a hurry.

They get it first of all from pitching, and if you look at their 40-man roster as I did during tonight's game, they're loaded with arms, top to bottom. They get it in the second place because of their speed and defense. Juan Pierre and Miguel Cabrera and Luis Castillo can turn a single into a double in a heartbeat and they can take away a double down the line or in the gaps just as fast. In the third place, Jack McKeon's got these guys playing at their maximum ability. They know they don't have the power of a Braves team or a Phillies team or even an Astros team, but they do have gap power and the athletic ability to take advantage of it. They position themselves well on defense--Oliver's eight infield outs tonight were not accidental--and their speed on the bases can break the concentration of the opposing pitcher and perhaps lead to a mistake or two for a Marlin hitter.

In short, while I'm going with the crowd in picking the Phillies to make the playoffs in 2004 and not the Marlins, I can't sell Florida short. They could make the post-season again, and they're playing thus far in March like they mean to do just that. They put a tired bunch of Astros to sleep Saturday night, dropping Houston's ST record to 5-4. I expected a better effort from Houston really, but there's a reason why that beautiful Spanish word "manana" means more than just "tomorrow." It means "another day of life, another opportunity, a better chance." After a needed night of rest, manana is what the Astros will be hoping for on Sunday afternoon when Tim Redding duels Dontrelle Willis, and the ballclub as a whole tries to get with it and play better offensive baseball.