A Miami Marlins season that was expected to go poorly, has been nothing short of a disaster through eight games.

The misery continued on Saturday, when the Marlins fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 20-1 at a chilly Citizens Bank Park.

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That’s not a misprint. The Marlins scored first, then watched the Phillies rattle off 20 unanswered runs. To put that in perspective, the Boston Red Sox (eight games, 19 runs) and New York Mets (seven games, 17 runs) have not allowed 20 runs yet this entire season.

On the flip side, the Phillies do deserve credit for putting up monster numbers. As you can see, their one night total is actually higher than two teams season output. That’s as impressive as the Marlins performance was pitiful.

On the strength of grand slams from Maikel Franco and Aaron Altherr, Philadelphia scored nine of its runs in the first three innings. All nine were changed to Miami starter Dillon Peters.

Philadelphia then added eight more in the fourth to cement the most lopsided victory in MLB this season.

Like the Tampa Bay Rays earlier on Saturday, the Marlins had to call on a position player to record their final three pitching outs. Backup catcher Bryan Holaday retired all three batters he faced, including a strikeout of .435-hitter Rhys Hoskins. Outfielder Daniel Robertson recorded a 1-2-3 eighth inning for the Rays in their 10-3 loss to the Red Sox.

Sadly, there’s really no debate that the best pitcher for both Florida teams on Saturday was not a pitcher at all.

Saturday’s loss dropped Miami to 2-6 on the season. Worse yet, they’ve already been outscored by 31 runs. We knew it was going to be tough after Derek Jeter’s ownership took over and traded most of the franchise’s key major league players. Unless some starting pitchers step up soon, it could prove to be even worse than imagined.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Yahoo Sports Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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