MIAMI — The NBA champion Miami Heat have finished parading around town, and the Miami Dolphins won’t begin training camp for another month.
That leaves the Miami Marlins front and center on the South Florida sports scene for the next few weeks.
And while many local fans were focused on LeBron James & Co., the Marlins showed they would not be swooning this June. Miami improved to 12-9 this month with a 4-2 victory against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.
Miami needs one victory in four remaining June games to finish with a winning month after going a combined 14-41 during April and May.
“You don’t look at calendar months when you’re playing,” first baseman Logan Morrison said. “You look at the next game, and then the game after that. After that game, you look at the game after that.
“That’s the mentality you have to have — keep moving forward. Have a short memory, whether good or bad.”
Words echoed by manager Mike Redmond.
“I think (a winning month) would be great, but I don’t think that far ahead, honestly,” Redmond said. “We’ve talked all season about taking one game at a time. And I know it’s cliché, but really that’s the way we focus on the season. We’ve been able to turn the page, good or bad.”
Lately, there’s been more good than bad. That’s largely due to good pitching and the return of two lineup fixtures: Morrison and Giancarlo Stanton.
Morrison is batting .308 since beginning his season on June 9 following knee surgery. Stanton, who had been on the disabled list with a strained hamstring, re-joined the Marlins the following night. Since then, Miami is 8-6.
A small sample, sure. But remember, the Marlins were 18-44 up to that point.
The other big boosts have been the returns of right-handers Jacob Turner and Nathan Eovaldi to the rotation.
Turner, who squandered a starting spot with a poor spring training performance, has gone 1-0 with a 1.97 ERA in five starts since being recalled on May 31.
Eovaldi made his first two starts of 2012 on the last road trip. Each time he gave up two earned runs in six innings.
On Tuesday night rookie sensation Jose Fernandez got a no-decision after allowing one run and four hits in five innings. He left trailing 1-0 having thrown 94 pitches.
“I didn’t have my breaking ball today,” he said. “The curveball and slider are big for me. I got it back last inning. I didn’t make adjustments … it took me four innings. In the big leagues, you have to make adjustments with the next pitch.”
Still, Fernandez kept the Marlins in the game.
Miami went ahead 2-1 in the sixth. Rookie Marcell Ozuna singled in the tying run, and the go-ahead run scored when center fielder Clete Thomas mishandled the ball.
Rookie Derek Dietrich led off the seventh with his seventh home run, and LoMo and Ozuna had back-to-back doubles to produce a run in the eighth.
The win followed an off day after Miami’s first winning (4-3) road trip of the season.
“It feels great,” Fernandez said. “We were going out on the seven-game road trip and I told (batting coach) Tino (Martinez), ‘Hey, we’re going to win seven games in a row on this road trip.’ He looked at me and didn’t believe me, but look how we’re playing.
“We’ve been playing great. Everybody’s happy, everybody’s playing hard.”
Charlie McCarthy can be reached at mac1763@bellsouth.net or on Twitter @mccarthy_chas
