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Miami Marlins vs. Chicago Cubs: Game 25 Thread and Ichthyomancy

The Miami Marlins are looking to bust up what would be a four-game sweep at the hands of the Chicago Cubs, and they are looking to Ricky Nolasco to do the job.

Hannah Foslien


Current Series

Cubs win the series 3-0

Thu 04/25 WP: Shawn Camp (1 - 1)
SV: Carlos Marmol
LP: Steve Cishek (1 - 3)
3 - 4 loss
Fri 04/26 WP: Scott Feldman (1 - 3)
SV: Kevin Gregg
LP: Wade LeBlanc (0 - 4)
2 - 4 loss
Sat 04/27 WP: Travis Wood (2 - 1)
SV: Kevin Gregg
LP: Alex Sanabia (2 - 3)
2 - 3 loss

Chicago Cubs
@ Miami Marlins

Sunday, Apr 28, 2013, 1:10 PM EDT
Marlins Park

Carlos Villanueva vs Ricky Nolasco

Partly cloudy. Winds blowing in from left field at 10-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 80.

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Get out the broom breakers, because the Miami Marlins are looking to bust up a sweep.

The Fish are looking to avoid being swept in a four-game series at home by the lowly Chicago Cubs. All three previous games were very close, but they all ended in the Marlins taking the loss. Can the Fish, with Ricky Nolasco on the mound, avoid the final defeat?

Pitching Matchup

Proj Win% Proj ERA FIP ERA Marlins Cubs ERA FIP Proj ERA Proj Win%
.443 4.47 3.77 3.81 Nolasco Villanueva 1.53 4.05 4.05 .489

Ricky Nolasco has found some semblance of balance in his performance so far this season, as he has upped his strikeouts a little while going back down to a 40 percent ground ball rate and once again leaving himself open to home runs. But so far this year, he has not allowed too many long balls, and that combined with a low .283 BABIP has brought his ERA to match with his FIP thus far. We will see how long that lasts, but Nolasco so far has at least been reliable, which is something that cannot be said about him most of the time.

Carlos Villanueva was a long-time Milwaukee Brewer who always could get strikeouts (career 20.4 percent rate) but gave up too many home runs (1.3 per nine innings career). This year, he is no different, and hopefully the Marlins can capitalize on that problem since the team did hit two homers last night. Giancarlo Stanton please?

Lineup

Order Player Proj wOBA vs. RHP
1 Juan Pierre .301
2 Chris Coghlan .313
3 Giancarlo Stanton .402
4 Greg Dobbs .286
5 Donovan Solano .277
6 Rob Brantly .302
7 Nick Green ---
8 Chris Valaika ---

This lineup is awful. There are no more words to say about that.

Bold Prediction: Cubs def. Marlins 4-2