Game 66: Miami Marlins @ Tampa Bay Rays, Game Thread and Ichthyomancy

The Miami Marlins are going for the series win on the road against the Tampa Bay Rays. This is not exactly something we expected to say this morning given how the team has been playing, but after an 11-0 beatdown in the first game, the Fish came back with a 4-3 win in extra innings. The club will send Josh Johnson, who is coming off of one of his most successful starts of the season. Hopefully this bodes well for the Fish.

Pitching Matchup

Josh Johnson just had one of his best starts of the season, complete with a return in velocity, and he looks primed and ready for a full-fledged return to the Johnson of old. He is still allowing more contact than we would like, but with increased velocity, the whiffs should come at any point. Marlins fans should keep an eye on the radar gun, as that fastball speed is critical to making Johnson's grounder-inducing changeup and his slider more effective. In his last two starts, the slider has made hitters miss on 22 percent of their swings, and hopefully that keeps up.

Alex Cobb has made five starts this season, and it has become clear that he is a decent pitcher in the majors. His weapon of choice appears to be the ground ball,as evidenced by his career 56.2 percent ground ball rate. The Fish will be facing a pitcher in the Chris Volstad, without all of Volstad's terrible flaws in terms of home runs, so it will not be an easy matchup, despite the deceptive 4.70 ERA.

Lineup

Bold Prediction: Marlins def. Rays 3-2