Bright Orange Seats would like to be the first to welcome Jew-Fro Johnson to the starting rotation. Five innings, and aside from the back-to-back-to-back singles in the third, he had a really strong performance on the mound in last night’s 5-4 Marlins victory. Maybe it was the anticipatory energy flowing through the room that made his pitches look a little more magical than they actually were. Or maybe the ball actually was sweeping 47 feet from left to right and Josh Johnson really is a mythical pitching creature in a Marlins jersey. We’re probably wrong on both accounts, but we know what we saw, and what we saw, we liked.

You know what else we like? When all-star shortstops go 5 for 6 with a game winning homer in extra innings. We won’t mention names though.

What we don’t like? We definitely don’t like when the starting pitcher leaves with a one-run lead — a lead that he produced with his own bat — and the relief pitcher comes in and gives up a homerun on his first pitch of the game. C’mon, Ryan. What the hell was that?

This was a fun game for fans that don’t work on Fridays. For those of us that do, it looks like that work day is gonna drag just a wee bit more now that we lost a few hours of sleep. See, Ryan Tucker. This is why it’s important to perform at the highest level at all times on the mound. Not so much to help your team get the W, but to allow the fans, your fans, that like to get drunk on Friday nights, a full 8 hours of sleep the night before. Otherwise, we crash and burn after 3 beers, somewhere just around midnight. Do you really want to be the cause of that, Ryan? I didn’t think so.

Oh, and we’d also like to thank Reynal Pinto and Kevin Gregg for their respective heart attack inducing innings. Pinto was just, well, Pinto. Gregg, on the other hand, while not allowing a hit in the 11th, watched the first batter of the inning fly out to the right field warning track, causing my sphincter to tighten at the thought of having to stay up for another 45 minutes.

In the end, though, this was the kind of victory we’d like to see more often. Pitchers bouncing back from bad breaks. Other pitchers picking up the slack. The offense getting on the board early. Hanley Ramirez getting on the board often.

And then there’s Jeremy Hermida…

AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian