The Miami Marlins are looking to salvage a series split with the Arizona Diamondbacks after suffering two disappointing losses in the series so far. The team's only victory came in dramatic fashion, in the ninth inning of Saturday night's close 3-2 win, but the club is hoping for an easy victory for a change after barely getting by offensively. In order to do this, the team will send one of their best starters, who is so far off to a great start in 2012. The Diamondbacks counter with another relative unknown, but those type of pitchers have owned the Fish thus far.
Pitching Matchup
| Proj Win% | Proj ERA | FIP | ERA | Marlins | Diamondbacks | ERA | FIP | Proj ERA | Proj Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .524 | 3.75 | 3.75 | 2.63 | Buehrle | Corbin | -- | -- | -- | -- |
Mark Buehrle will face off against rookie Patrick Corbin in today's afternoon matchup. The Fish are sending Buehrle following yet another strong performance versus the New York Mets in his last outing. The Diamondbacks have not hit balls all that hard, having blooped Josh Johnson out of yesterday's game and only really dealt serious damage to Carlos Zambrano and reliever Michael Dunn so far this series. This bodes well for Buehrle, who has pitched well thus far and has more or less been the typical Mark Buehrle that we expected to see all season long.
The Diamondbacks will send rookie lefty Patrick Corbin at the Fish, but this is not necessarily a good thing. The Marlins have not fared well versus lefties despite being predominantly right-handed, and Corbin, like Wade Miley yesterday, is not guaranteed to struggle against a faltering offense. Corbin has done well in 27 innings thus far in Double-A, as he has 1.67 ERA and 2.35 FIP in his second stint at that level.
Lineup
| Order | Player | Proj wOBA vs. LHP |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Reyes | .362 |
| 2 | Emilio Bonifacio | .305 |
| 3 | Hanley Ramirez | .375 |
| 4 | Austin Kearns | .304 |
| 5 | Omar Infante | .317 |
| 6 | Giancarlo Stanton | .408 |
| 7 | Gaby Sanchez | .366 |
| 8 | John Buck | .321 |
Austin Kearns is in the lineup to rest Logan Morrison today. That is perfectly fine. What is not perfectly fine is having him bat cleanup simply because he is the team's left fielder and because the normal left fielder, Morrison, also bats cleanup. This makes no sense and reeks of managing to appease the other hitters so that they "familiarize" themselves with their current lineup spots. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Note also that Jose Reyes has been moved back to the leadoff spot and Emilio Bonifacio back down to the second slot, undoing the two-game lineup change that yielded absolutely no difference in the Marlins' offense.
Bold Prediction: Marlins def. Diamondbacks 3-2 (I know I am supposed to predict a Marlins loss, but the Diamondbacks are making it really hard for to do so by sending these unknowns to start!)