The Miami Marlins are 5-1 since Giancarlo Stanton was knocked out of the lineup with a broken bone in his hand. Clearly, there’s no way that kind of form is going to continue for the next four to six weeks, which is how long Stanton is supposed to be sidelined. But Justin Bour is certainly doing his part to make up for the loss of baseball’s leading home run hitter.
He has now hit a homer in four straight games. On Friday, he took Jason Hammel of the Chicago Cubs deep in the sixth inning at Wrigley Field for what proved to be the winning run in a 2-1 Marlins win. He hit a walk-off three-run homer against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.
The left-handed hitting Bour has been platooning with Jeff Baker at first base since Michael Morse went on the disabled list with an injured finger in late May. But until recently, Bour had been in an awful slump, hitting only .138 for the month of June after hitting .322 in May. Overall, he’s slashing .271/.350/.521 with 10 homers and 21 RBI.
Despite the peaks and valleys, Bour’s stats are much better than those put up by Morse so far this season. The 33-year-old veteran, brought in to play first base on a two-year, $16 million contract, has slashed only .211/.268/.289 through 37 games with two home runs and 10 RBI.
Morse is expected back as soon as this weekend. So where do the Marlins put him? They do have some wriggle room, given that Morse can play both corner outfield positions and even third base if needed. But it’s more likely that the Marlins look to trade Morse and his salary to a contender. He will have to prove he’s healthy and that means he needs regular playing time, whether it is at first base or somewhere else.
In the meantime, the Marlins should be keeping Bour in the lineup against right-handers for as long as this hot streak continues.
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