Starting Five: Something Smells Fishy in NL East

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
The Florida Marlins already have a three-game lead in the NL East. Yesterday's 6-2 victory over the Braves finished off Florida's first-ever sweep of a series longer than two games in Atlanta.

The Marlins' 8-1 start matches the team's best, set in 1997 and tied in 2004. Since the three-tiered playoff system began in 1995, 10 teams have started 8-1 or better and only three missed the playoffs (2002 Indians, 2003 Royals and those 2004 Marlins).

"Nobody in here is surprised," [Cody] Ross said of the Marlins' hot start. "We feel like we're a good team. There are a lot of skeptics who say it's early. We have to have confidence and never let down."

Florida's trip continues in Washington and Pittsburgh, so it looks like it has a pretty reasonable shot at going 12-3 before facing Philadelphia for the first time.

From the Trainer's Room ...
The report on Jeff Clement is good hitter, not much of a catcher. So when he's slumping at the plate, he's not of much use.

Thus, because Clement was off to a 1-for-19 start at Triple-A, the Mariners left him there when they put starting catcher Kenji Johjima on the DL with a strained right hamstring expected to keep him out two to three weeks.

Rob Johnson, who beat out Clement in spring training to be the No. 2 catcher in Seattle, becomes the regular, and veteran Jamie Burke came up to be the backup.

Manager Don Wakamatsu's evaluation of Johnson seems to say a lot about what Clement is not. Wakamatsu said he liked Johnson's ...

"... toughness and his ability to handle a pitching staff early. Those are things we demanded from all the catchers in camp and he stood out right away. This is something that he was not going to let pass by. He earned the spot and had a great relationship with the pitchers and also swung the bat well."

Numbers Game ...
Toronto has scored 77 runs in 11 games, making it the Jays' best 11-game offensive stretch since July 2005 and the best 11-game start for any club since the 2003 Red Sox scored 78 runs in a 6-5 start. (Texas has scored 71 runs in nine games so far.) Four Toronto regulars are batting .340 or better: Aaron Hill (.380), Vernon Wells (.340), Adam Lind (.370) and Scott Rolen (.359).

In Their Own Words ...
"This ballpark brought back memories to me of the first time I walked in (the old Yankee Stadium) 60 years ago. ... Yankee Stadium, it was the most famous sports cathedral in the world. Do you want to preserve that? You betcha." – commissioner Bud Selig, who first saw the old Yankee Stadium on his 15th birthday, in July 1949.

Advance Scouting ...
J.T. Walters gets thrown into the fire of the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry when he makes his big-league debut as St. Louis' starter at Wrigley Field (2:20 PM, ET). Walters fills the rotation spot of the injured Chris Carpenter, and he faces Chicago ace Carlos Zambrano. St. Louis got to Zambrano pretty good last year, as he was 1-2 with a 12.75 ERA in three starts against them. After dropping Friday's opener of the four-game set, the Cubs need to win two of the next three go unbeaten in their first four series for the first time since 1980.