Ken Griffey nearly completed his team's coughing up of a four-run lead when he dropped a Mike Rabelo shallow fly in the eighth, allowing two runs to score to make it an 8-7 game. Two batters later, Griffey watched Alfredo Amezaga's bases-loaded, two-out liner to the right-center gap hit off the heel of his glove, but he secured it and precluded the Marlins from stealing this one.

Such ended the seven-game win streak Monday night, with an 8-7 loss to the Reds. Taylor Tankersley had a rough outing, serving up a pair of two-run homers. Burke Badenhop pitched well through six innings. If not for a wild pitch with Aaron Harang up and two outs in the sixth, he would have had himself a quality start.

One lesson from Monday: Teams cannot survive via the home run alone. The Marlins got three and still lost. They're now 8-1 when going yard three or more times. They needed to execute better in the field, particularly Jorge Cantu on a throw that should have ended the fifth with the Marlins up 3-1 instead of 3-2.

It's test time, folks. Time to see if the same fans who celebrated the team for winning seven in a row and taking steps to lock up Hanley Ramirez can negotiate the ebb and flow of a baseball season. The conditions in this game change in an instant. Calm seas go from light chop to moderate chop to 20-foot swells. The beauty is it can change for the better just as quickly.

If the Marlins lose three of four in Cincinnati, will you still have the same enthusiasm you did when they began the week as the team with the best record in baseball?

Soon they'll get Josh Willingham back off the disabled list and perhaps as soon as this weekend they'll be able to choose from Chris Volstad and/or Ryan Tucker to augment their rotation without suffering an arbitration setback.

Oh, yeah, and they are the toast of baseball management for getting Hanley Ramirez wrapped up for $70 million over the next six years. Had he gone year to year and chosen to hit the free agent market after 2011, he was probably looking at $90 million to $100 million, minimum, at the rate baseball is growing as an industry.

Best of all, they get to go another two weeks seeing just one winning opponent (Arizona from May 20-22 at home). Got to keep beating up on the Reds, Royals and Giants before the all-important intradivision stretch begins on May 28.

Ten straight games against NL East foes start that night in Queens (three at Mets, three at Phils, four at Braves).

So, how long can the Fish keep this going? And what worries you most as their most likely downfall? 

Once the Monopoly money mentality wore off, the deal looked better and better. Here's why it's fair: Best I can tell this contract will be the richest ever for a player with less than three years of major league service time, topping David Wright, Pat Burrell and most recently Troy Tulowitzki. Had Ramirez played out this season before signing, they he would have graduated into the Chase Utley (7 years/$85 million) and Albert Pujols (7 years/$100 million) realm. Both Utley and Pujols played three full seasons before signing their mega-contracts.

Considering the point at which Ramirez is signing his extension, it no longer seems like the Marlins are stealing him. Nonetheless, by the fourth, fifth and sixth years of the deal, it wouldn't surprise me if Ramirez is considered underpaid based on his production.

Here's a list I complied of position player contracts signed before the player reached the three-year service time plateau. I left off Pujols and Joe Mauer (4 years/$33 million), both of whom had exactly three years of service time. Burrell had racked up 2 years, 131 days. Not sure if that would made him arbitration-eligible as a super two, so I included him to be safe. Give a shout if I made any glaring omissions...

Player; Team; Contract terms

Hanley Ramirez; Marlins; 6 years, $70 million

David Wright; Mets; 6 years, $55 million

Pat Burrell; Phillies; 6 years, $50 million

Troy Tulowitzki;

Rockies

Curtis Granderson; Tigers; 5 years, $30.25 million

Robinson Cano; Yankees; 4 years, $30 million

Nick Swisher; Athletics; 5 years, $26.75 million

Grady Sizemore; Indians; 6 years, $23.45 million

Jose Reyes; Mets; 4 years, $23.25 million

Ian Kinsler; Rangers; 5 years, $22 million

Jason

Brian McCann; Braves; 5 years, $18 million

Evan Longoria; Rays; 6 years, $17.5 million

Victor Martinez; Indians; 5 years, $15.5 million

Hank Blalock; Rangers; 5 years, $15.25 million

Carl Crawford; Rays; 4 years, $15.25 million

Vernon Wells; Blue Jays; 5 years, $14.7 million

Jhonny Peralta; Indians; 5 years, $13 million

Bobby Crosby; Athletics; 5 years, $12.75 million

David DeJesus; Royals; 5 years, $11.95 million

Adrian Gonzalez; Padres; 4 years, $9.5 million

The Marlins are believed to have initiated talks during spring training. Ramirez, who is making $439,000 this season, would have been eligible for arbitration after this season. Ramirez is taking a huge home discount as this deal buys out his first three years of free agent eligibility.

The Marlins are 20-14. The only other team in franchise history with 20 wins through 34 games was the 2004 squad. A win over the Nationals tonight would give the Marlins the best start in franchise history after 35 games, hence the title of this thread (quickest to 21, get it?). It would also put them seven games over .500 for the first time since Sept. 2005, when they were 80-73.

Major props to the bullpen Thursday, especially Logan Kensing for retiring all eight batters he faced to get the win in relief of Mark Hendrickson. The relief staff held the Brewers to two hits in 27 at-bats during the three-game sweep.

Saw some nice things out of Andrew Miller and Burke Badenhop their last time out. Now it's time for Ricky Nolasco to step up tonight. Keep an eye on how well he closes out hitters and innings. Opponents are batting .368 off him with two outs and runners in scoring position.

As a side item, how about a quick straw poll...If the Marlins can get Jacque Jones for a low-level prospect and the pro-rated major league minimum do you take him?

The man from Bowling Green left with a 3-2 lead with two outs in the sixth, and the bullpen got the final 10 outs for him. Badenhop got six groundball outs with his plus sinker and also secured seven strikeouts.

Nice night at the plate for Hanley Ramirez, who reached on all four trips (two walks, two singles), Jorge Cantu (two-run homer in the sixth) and Dan Uggla (solo homer in the sixth).

Alfredo Amezaga also made a pair of ridiculously acrobatic catches in center. Maybe they don't need Jacque Jones after all.

About the only negative on the night was Mike Jacobs leaving with a tight left quad after ripping a two-run double (that was really a three-run homer) in the third. This is where it helps to have Wes Helms back, as it removes the temptation to rush Jacobs back into the lineup.

And so a homestand that began with a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers has seen the Marlins climb back to 4-4 as it ends Thursday night against the reeling Brewers.

Fourteen of the Marlins' next 17 games are against teams that currently have losing records. The only exception will be a three-game visit by the D-backs May 20-22.

Maybe the Fish can keep things interesting into June, huh?   

Milwaukee starter David Bush gets a break with Josh Willingham being on the DL. The Hammer is 3 for 5 career against Bush with two doubles. ... Dan Uggla is also 3 for 5 against him with a walk and a double. ... Jorge Cantu is 2 for 10 with a double and a strikeout against Bush.

This will be the first time facing Burke Badenhop for the Brewers.

Oh, and if the Brewers get the game to struggling closer Eric Gagne, you might not want to see red-hot LF Luis Gonzalez come up. He's 4 for 20 with nine whiffs career against Gagne, although most of those were back in Gagne's pre-injury days. Wes Helms is 1 for 5 against the erstwhile Game Over Guy, while no other Marlins have faced him more than twice. 

Instead, ex-Marlin Joe Dillon battled him through an eight-pitch walk and Fredi Gonzalez brought in closer Kevin Gregg.

As much as I'd love to see Olsen (or any Marlin) get a complete game, I say it was the right move in this case as Olsen already was at a career-high 121 pitches and the winning run was at the plate in the dangerous Bill Hall.

Gregg got Hall to fly out to right on the first pitch, leaving the Fish right there with the Nationals as teams with 200-plus game streaks without a CG. The Marlins' last nine-inning complete game came 213 games ago, while the Nats have gone 238 games and counting between wire-to-wire jobs.

"I don't think anybody even cares," about complete games, Olsen said in the winning clubhouse.

Olsen still turned in a gem, even if he came up one strike short of going the distance.  He's starting to look like a real ace, isn't he?

For those of you who missed it, I had a little fun with my off day story. This summer is the 20th anniversary of the release of Bull Durham -- maybe the best baseball movie ever. I noticed the Marlins had a few guys that played for the Durham Bulls, so thought it would be interesting to get their recollections about playing there and how they were associated with the movie. Doug Waechter, Lee Gardner and Joe Nelson were pretty good on the subject. As Waechter told me, he could rip quotes from that movie all day. In that spirit, how about we put together our favorite lines? Tough to narrow it down to one or two, but I'll go with:

"Don't think. It'll only hurt the ball club" and "Anything that travels that far should have a stewardess on it."

His ERA has spiked to 6.10, a number only WIOD radio could endorse.

Nolasco hit 95 mph at least three times on the radar gun, according to one scout at tonight's game, and he also flashed a power curve that he threw at 82 mph. So the raw stuff is coming back after those elbow problems of a year ago, but his command is still sadly lacking.

"That's the irony of pitching," the scout said. "Scott Olsen's stuff is down and he's pitching better than ever, and this guy [Nolasco] is showing better stuff and he can't get people out."

This makes just one quality start for Nolasco in his last nine tries, dating to the start of last season. He allowed six runs on 10 hits and two walks tonight and he hit the No. 8 batter to set up a two-run rally in the second.

Still, his spot in the rotation seems safe for now. At least until Chris Volstad, Ryan Tucker and Anibal Sanchez are ready to join the fun later this summer.

Your question: Which Marlins starter do you kick out of the rotation first once the reinforcements start to arrive? It's not an easy choice, is it, when you've got The Hopper (7.20 ERA) and Sunday's starter, Andrew Miller (9.12) gumming up the works, although Burke Badenhop was much better against the Dodgers the other day.