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Solano brothers psyched for showdown

      There were tears when Donovan Solano picked his brother, Jhonatan, up at the airport Monday night.

      "We cried a little bit," Jhonatan said.

      Said Donovan to Jhonatan: "We did it!"

      Who could blame them for their tears and exctiement? Donovan Solano was an infielder in the Marlins farm system only 10 days ago. Jhonatan, the oldest of the Solano brothers by two years, was in the Nationals' minor-league system. Neither had ever spent a day in the majors. But in the short span of those 10 incredible days, both Solanos reached the big leagues for the first time. And they'll be sitting in opposing dugouts.

       "It's amazing," Donovan said.

       It's big news in their native Colombia, where the local papers are trumpeting the story, as well they should. They are only the 12th and 13th Colombian-born players to reach the majors. The Nationals, in need of catching help, called up Jhonatan following Monday's game.

       Incredibly, though, they're not the first brothers from Colombia to make it. The Cabreras -- Orlando and Jolbert -- beat them to that feat.

       The brothers' parents -- Luis Solano and Myriam Preciado -- quickly made flight arrangements to be in Miami for tonight's game. So as to remain impartial as possible, mom is wearing a Marlins jersey while dad has on a Nationals shirt.


       Marlins: 1. Reyes, ss; 2. Infante, 2b; 3. Ramirez, 3b; 4. Stanton, rf; 5. Morrison, 1b; 6. Petersen, cf; 7. Buck, c; 8. Coghlan, lf; 9. Sanchez, p.

       Nationals: 1. Lombardozzi, 2b; 2. Harper, rf; 3. Zimmerman, 3b; 4. LaRoche, 1b: 5. Desmond, ss; 6. Ankiel, cf; 7. Brown, lf; 8. Maldonado, c; 9. Jackson, p.





Cool to see him get a hit with his parents there. Only 13 Colombian players to ever play in the bigs and he and his bro both get hits in their 1st AB.

Flav C

So, Gaby went 2-4 with a RBI single tonight, while playing with the Zephyrs. Guess that pretty much means he will not host the Gaby Sanchez T-Shirt give away tomorrow before the game against the Nats.



Is there any FO talk to finally give a multi-year deal to Anibal? With every quality start he makes that price is going up and if I'm Anibal I do not take a home discount for having to wait so long. Are the Marlins really willing to let him walk for a compensation pick? At this point I believe the Marlins will make a playoff run and so Anibal becomes un-tradeable even though he'd probably be the Marlins biggest chip not deemed untouchable (Stanton).


Great stat that's not mentioned much. At the 50 game mark,the Marlins bullpen,while ranked 18th in MLB based solely on an ERA of 3.78,lead all of MLB in giving up the fewest HRs at only 4. Four. Compared to Giants 6, Dodgers 10,Nats 11,Mets 14,Phils 15,and Braves 18,that's a phenomenal job. Well done.So far.

Flav C.

georgeB...Take a look at Dobbs clutch stats...out of this world.

Flav C.

Any talks on Cousins being called up? I didn't see his name in the Zephyrs lineup last night.
By the way, great job by Brad Hand, carrying a no-hitter into the 8th inning.


Cousins has been playing well, but it seems like the only reason to bring him up would be to switch one of the lefties (Petersen or Cogs) for a righthanded bat in the outfield. It hurts the Marlins to have the lower end of their lineup stacked with lefthanded bats (Morrison, Petersen and Coghlan) separated only by Buck, who's a nonentity. Allows opposing managers to bring in their lefty specialist at key moments in the game to face four guys in a row, as the Nats did last night. Maybe Petersen is hurting after crashing into the wall last night, in which case he might need time off.


Donovan Solano was welcomed to the Marlins in typical fashion: "Hi kid, guess what? You're playing Left Field tonight. What, you never played Left Field before, other than a few innings in the minors? No problem, a lot of our outfielders never played the OF before, and those who have are old guys like Dobbs & Kearns who should be pinch hitting or playing 1st base these days. Why do you think our Outfield Follies are so funny?"

Solano actually didn't do badly in left, although it appears he has an infielder's arm, same as Coghlan does. But WTF is up with Peterson? Three catchable balls over his head in CF during the Nats series. All were scored as hits, but all were catchable by a good Center Fielder, which Peterson is showing us he is not. Ever since we kicked Cody Ross to the curb, the Outfield has been a problem.

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