Marlins Lose Game and Maybe Cabrera Too

Not a good time to be a Marlin right now. Fredi Gonzalez's team has just lost five in a row, including two blowout losses at the hands of the New York Mets, but they may be missing Miguel Cabrera as well:

"We're not playing very good right now," said Florida slugger Miguel Cabrera, whose team has lost five in a row. To make matters worse for the Marlins, Cabrera left in the third inning with an injury to his right oblique and declined to predict when he'll be back in the lineup.

Neither the Mets broadcasting team nor I knew what Miguel was doing when he laid down a sac bunt in the third inning. Now we know that it was probably injury related:

He gave a hint that he was hurting came when he bunted with a runner on second in the first inning - his first sacrifice since his rookie year in 2003. "When I swing and miss a ball, I feel something," he said.

Oblique injuries ... as you well know ... are no joke. It probably cost Albert Pujols the MVP award last season. But there's a lot more at stake here than that, where a team like Florida needs their big hitter ... now more than ever ... just to stay afloat.

As for the Mets, they enter a big series against the Braves with the bats smoking. As of right now, the Mets are hitting .303 as a team, and that includes a .357 average by, of all people, Ramon Castro who had a two-hit, three RBI night. David Wright extended his two-season hitting streak to 26 games, and Carlos Beltran was a triple away from the cycle when he doubled in his final at-bat, but never did he think of going for third to get the cycle. Why? Because he's a nice guy.

"With the score of the game, I don't think it would have been good if I had tried to go to third and was thrown out," Beltran said. "That would have looked like I was trying to show them up -- not a good thing." He shrugged. "Maybe I'll be able to hit for the cycle before I quit playing," he said.

And he knows the rules ... whether they're written or unwritten.