MIAMI — In the shadow of the soaring home run sculpture, below a sports bar and above a nightclub, Noel Rodriguez sipped a beer and watched his favorite team lose by seven runs Monday night. He wore a bright orange jersey, No. 7, with Jose Reyes’s name stitched on the back. He paid $100 for it last year, he said, and within months it was obsolete.

“I was going to put a sticker on it that said, ‘SOLD,’ ” said Rodriguez, 31, who works in customs at the Miami airport. “But they might push me out of the park.”

Actually, the Miami Marlins, off to a 3-12 start — including a loss Wednesday night — after their latest purge of expensive players, need more fans like Rodriguez. He does not believe ownership cares much about winning, he said, and still wishes the team had not traded Miguel Cabrera in 2007, let alone Reyes and the others dumped since last summer.

But he comes here anyway, he said, to support the home team and enjoy the atmosphere and the air-conditioning. Win or lose, there are worse ways to spend an April evening. Not many others agree.