Fish End Road Trip From **** With a Win

At least the Marlins can return to South Florida with a little bit of dignity. At least four of the losses in the six-game skid were games the Fish should have won and let slip away due to bad pitching and even worse defense. Two of those ended in walk-offs. It was absolutely gut-wrenching to watch, especially the games dropped in San Francisco in front of the national media (though they weren't really paying attention to the actual game. When Barry wasn't up, all the ESPN commentators did was talk about Barry and show footage of Barry).

Bats broke to and fro on Sunday afternoon, and somehow the Fishies were able to hold on to their 8-5 lead. As embarrassing as this road trip was, let's see what positives we can take from it:

Sergio Mitre and Dontrelle Willis redeemed themselves from abysmal outings in Arizona with good starts San Francisco. In addition, they were both able to contain Barry Bonds. D-Train struck him out, while Mitre got him to roll over twice. Both popped him up, though the infield seemed to let the ball drop Sunday, and the scorers ruled it an infield single for Bonds, who was probably pissed he had to run the bases.

Hermida Hot: Jeremy's been swinging a hot bat in the month of July and is riding a six-game hitting streak, hitting in each game of the nightmare road trip. It's good to see Hermida contributing offensively, swinging the bat like we know he can. He just really needs to get it together in right field. If he can get his defense on par with his hitting, he'll be a star.

Oh, baby! Mike Jacobs got a call during Saturday's game that his wife was about to go into labor a month early with their twins. Our first baseman high-tailed it back to South Florida after the game to witness the birth of his twin girls. He's not the only new Marlins daddy -- D-Train's wife gave birth to their first child, Adriana, at the beginning of the season. It has been a theory of mine that Dontrelle's pitching woes may have something to do with the lack of sleep he must be getting taking care of his newborn every night. Now Jake will have sleepless nights of diaper-changing as well...this could possibly have a negative effect on his game. Let's hope not.