Game 83: Miami Marlins @ St. Louis Cardinals, Game Thread and Ichthyomancy

The Miami Marlins are coming off of a close victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, but today's game may prove to be more difficult than the last (not that last night was even close to easy). The Fish will send out the struggling Carlos Zambrano out against Kyle Lohse, one of the Cardinals who proved to be a deciding factor in the Marlins' Opening Night loss at the new stadium. The Fish offense looks much better now than it did back then, but the pitching staff has been worse as of late, and Zambrano has been a prime example of that.

Pitching Matchup

Carlos Zambrano received some extra "earned" runs from a change in terms of an error versus infield hit ruling, resulting in him picking up four earned runs from his last start. In each of his last five starts, he has walked at least as many as he has struck out, and it is no surprise that in that time period he has an 8.59 ERA and 6.89 FIP. This has been one horrific month, and while it has gotten better in terms of runs allowed, Zambrano needs to get his act together quickly.

Lohse dominated the Marlins on Opening Night, striking out three and walking none in 7 1/3 innings of shutout baseball. The Marlins look better on offense now than they did in the month of April, so they should perform better against him this time around. In addition, keep in mind that Lohse likely is not the dominant pitcher his ERA has indicated thus far, as his game is much like Westbrook's but with more strikeouts and a lack of ground balls.

Lineup

I will not be here by the time lineups come up, but if you Fish Stripes could help me out, that would be great. We do know that Giancarlo Stanton will be back in the lineup after missing four games with a knee issue that he is still uncertain as to how to resolve. Nevertheless, Stanton looked good enough to return to the lineup, so I do expect a lineup like this:

Bold Prediction: Cardinals def. Marlins 6-2