At a certain point during Tuesday night’s Marlins game at Washington, the following factors must have reached a tipping point with the Baseball Gods:

• Florida Marlins record against the Washington Nationals in 2008, 14-3.
• Florida Marlins record against the Washington Nationals in 2009, 9-0.
• 25-yr old Josh Johnson appeared on the verge of throwing a 2 hit shutout, having retired the last 20 batters and about to face the bottom of the order with a low-pitch count in the 8th inning.
• Johnson would also be likely extending his streak streak of allowing three runs or fewer in his starts – the streak was now at 18 straight games.

The Marlins were on the verge of going 24-3 against the Nationals. The Baseball Gods don’t allow great teams to abuse bad teams that badly over a 2 year period, let alone a just average team doing it to a bad team. The surprise was not that the Nationals rallied with 6 runs in the 8th, but that they even had to rally. That the rally came so late. What kind of debts does this franchise have with the Baseball Gods? Are the Baseball Gods trying to make Pittsburgh feel better in comparison?

Take a look at the Elias MLB Standings grid. The grid allow us to go back to 2002. I’ll focus on division rivals which typically play each other 18 times and find the most lopsided records in both leagues and what those teams records were the following year.

• 2002 – BOS v TB 16-3
• 2003 – BOS v TB 12-7

• 2002 – PIT v MIL 15-4
• 2003 – PIT v MIL 7-10

• 2003 – OAK v TEX 15-4
• 2004 – OAK v TEX 11-9

• 2003 – SF v SD 14-5 and WAS v NYM 14-5
• 2004 – SF v SD 7-12 and WAS v NYM 9-10

• 2004 – NYY v TB 15-4
• 2005 – NYY v TB 8-11

• 2004 – LAD v ARI 16-3
• 2005 – LAD v ARI 5-13

• 2005 – LAA v TEX 15-4
• 2006 – LAA v TEX 11-8

• 2005 – ARI v LAD 13-5
• 2006 – ARI v LAD 8-10

• 2006 – BOS v BAL 15-3
• 2007 – BOS v BAL 12-6

• 2006 – HOU v PIT 13-3
• 2007 – HOU v PIT 5-10

• 2007 – CLE v MIN 14-4
• 2008 – CLE v MIN 8-10

• 2007 – SD v SF 14-4
• 2008 – SD v SF 5-13

• 2008 – TB v BAL 15-3
• 2009 [partial] TB v BAL 3-4

• 2008 – ARI v COL 15-3
• 2009 [partial] ARI v COL 6-6

• 2008 – FLA v WAS 14-3
• 2009 [partial] FLA v WAS 9-1

If the Marlins finish the year with a 13-5 record against the Nationals, they are on track to have had the best record in back to back years against a division rival than any other team in MLB since at least 2002.

Seriously fellow Marlins fans, what are we complaining about?

Happy birthday Daniel!