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If only March baseball counted.

Detroit Tigers lead-off man Ramon Santiago walked to open the game and corner infielder Jeff Larish reached in following inning via plunking. Other than that, the Marlins’ pitching staff was flawless, no hitting the Tigers at Joker Merchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida on Sunday and winning the contest 2-0.

"I've never seen it in spring training," Tigers manager Jim Leyland told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "There wasn't anything fluky about it.”

Sinkerballer Ricky Nolasco impressed the Marlins’ organization last season, logging 212.1 innings with a 3.52 earned run average and continued to impress Sunday, going 7 no-hit innings while inducing two double plays and striking out eight.

"Hopefully I can save some of those zeros for the season," Nolasco said, according to MLB.com.

Dan Meyer and Leo Nunez closed out the 8th and 9th inning, respectively, giving way to a fairly subdued celebration, considering the no-hitter.

Though tough to track, the South Florida Sun Sentinel traced the most recent Spring Training no-no back to March 14, 2000, when six Red Sox pitchers combined to no hit the Toronto Blue Jays.

Sanchez Consistent
The day before, the most recent Marlin to throw a no-hitter - back in 2006 - and former Red Sox farmhand Anibal Sanchez faced his former club and was effective in the rain-delayed game.

Mike Berardino reported “he cruised through the first 14 batters” in “his best spring outing”.

''I had great command,'' Sanchez said after the outing. ``Last year, I was thinking too much about getting hurt again. But it's been enough time now, and I'm not thinking like that anymore.''

Sanchez struggled with a torn labrum in his pitching shoulder, sidelining him for the better part of a calendar year. He started only 16 major league games since his promising rookie campaign and was hit hard in 51.2 inning pitched last season, registering a 5.51 ERA.

If there was one plus to last season, it was his strikeout ability. He managed to strikeout 50 batters - almost 1 per inning pitched. Saturday, that velocity was evident, constantly hitting 91 miles per hour or higher against the Red Sox, though only striking out two through 5.2 innings in his no decision.

Maybin Impresses Kaline
Detroit Tigers legend Al Kaline has registered over 3,000 hits at the major league level and came one home run shy of 400 before retiring. The first ballot Hall of Famer knows talent when he sees it - and he sees it in Marlins’ prospect Cameron Maybin, according to the Miami Herald.

“He's got great power, great speed, and he's a great outfielder,” Kaline said. “The only thing he doesn't do well is recognize breaking balls. He'll swing and miss the ball a few times, more than he should. That's something most young players will have a problem with.

“But with that great speed of his, if he puts the ball in play, he's going to be able to get on base a lot.”

The 21 year-old Maybin was drafted by the Tigers 10th overall in the 2005 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Last season, he was traded to the Marlins as the centerpiece of a deal that sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit.

Entering Monday, Maybin was hitting .289 in 45 at-bats during Spring Training with one home run and two stolen bases in three chances. Maybin is expected to break camp as the starting center fielder opposite Jeremy Hermida and Cody Ross.

Hot/Not
HOT: Hermida, who hasn’t lived up to the hype in previous injury-plagued seasons, is hitting .368 this spring with a .684 slugging percentage, 3 home runs, and 10 RBIs in 38 at-bats…Josh Johnson, who has 14 strikeouts and a 1.13 ERA through 16 innings this spring.

NOT: Hanley Ramirez, limited to just 15 at-bats with the Marlins due to a shoulder injury and playing in the World Baseball Classic, has just two hits with the Marlins this spring - though both were extra base hits - and four errors in five games…Taylor Tankersley, expected to compete for a bullpen spot this spring has been dismal. The inconsistent pitcher has allowed 14 hits and 3 walks in 6.1 innings, logging a 15.63 ERA and a WHIP of well over 2.

When the Florida Marlins came into existence in 1993, they were draped in teal and tossed a 45 year-old Charlie Hough on the mound en route to a 98 loss season. Better days were bound to happen, but two World Series titles in 15 seasons for a micro-market team exceeded all expectations.

Still, Thursday may have signified the Marlins’ biggest victory in franchise history.

By a 3-2 vote, Miami city commissioners approved financing for a new 37,000 seat retractable-roof stadium for the low, low price of $515 million, plus $94 millions for parking lots on the site where the Orange Bowl once stood, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The deciding vote ended a 2-2 deadlock and, hopefully, will end years of sporadic fan interest. Watching a late-September Marlins home game is sometimes a laughable affair. Last season, a meaningless September series against the Washington Nationals drew a recorded 40,452 fans between the three games, though the real number can surely be cut in half, as there seemed a 2:1 foul ball to fan ratio amidst Dolphin Stadium’s hideous empty orange seats.

Last season, according to Baseball Reference, Florida finished dead last in the National League in attendance with 1,335,076. The Tampa Bay Rays finished 12th of the 14 teams in the American League, despite winning the A.L. East which raises the obvious question of whether or not Florida can simply play sufficient host to a major league team.

Granted, both Dolphin Stadium and Tropicana Field are horribly dated and hideous sites, but with flailing attendance for decent products, it’s tough to commit over half a billion dollars to a lackluster fan base.

The plan still needs approval from the Miami-Dade County Commission, which will be heard next week. The Marlins chief argument has been the creation of new jobs combined with keeping baseball in South Florida while the opposition argues paying tax money to a private organization in these financial times simply is not a practical application.

The new deal would a name-change for the soon-could-be Miami Marlins, but one thing’s for sure, the Florida Marlins and all those empty seats can’t remain as it currently stands.

Lindstrom Recovering
Reliever Matt Lindstrom is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during warm-ups at the World Baseball Classic.

According to The Sports Xchange, Lindstrom hoped to play catch tomorrow for the first time since suffering the injury a week earlier. The fireballer has been clocked at over 100 miles per hour - he hit 102 at PNC Park last season against the Pittsburgh Pirates - and was in line for the closer’s job before the injury. Leo Nunez is expected to inherit the closer position if Lindstrom can’t recover in time for the season opener.

Last year, Lindstrom converted five saves in six chances - all five saves coming in the month of September - and recorded a 3.14 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 57.1 inning pitched.

WBC, A-Ok for Cantu
Jorge Cantu returned to Marlins’ camp healthy - unlike his less-fortunate teammates Lindstrom and Alfredo Amezaga, who left the event with a sprained knee - and raved about his experience at the event, which was music to his ears. More specifically, mariachi music to his ears.

"You're talking about mariachis playing, music playing, every game," Cantu told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. "There's always something going on different. The other team was like, 'What's going on, why is music playing while we're hitting?' It's just different down [in Mexico].

"We played our hearts out," Cantu said of the club‘s first round elimination. "We did all we could. It was a great time, great experience, great pride, a lot of honor to do that. And just to play in front of the Mexican crowd, it was something unbelievable."