Marlins vs Phillies: Game 39 Thread

The Marlins took game one of the series yesterday thanks to, among other things, a couple of bombs courtesy Marcell Ozuna and Justin Bour, and seek to lock up the series victory today.

Coming into today the Marlins have the eighth best wOBA (.330) in all of baseball. Put another way, they are producing offensive value at a high level relative to the rest of the field, and if that's not an exciting development to you, then you're probably not a Marlins fan. They also finally crossed into a positive run differential (+1) after a month of encroachment upon the threshold. They are the only team in the NL East presently on a winning streak.

The Marlins will try and keep rolling on the high seas of good fortune. Plying the waters with a steady hand is captain Wei-Yin Chen, Vince Velasquez will oppose him, leading the Pirate Phillies horde.

Pitching Matchup

Velasquez has given up four earned runs through six innings each of his last two starts, including in Miami where the Fish were squaring up his fastball early and often. If Velasquez is intending on pounding the strikezone in this start, then he hasn't learned his lesson.

Chen had arguably his best start in a Marlins uniform this past outing, striking out twelve Brewers (matching his career best) over six and a third's innings, giving up two runs on six hits and walking two. Given the Phillies issues at the plate, one would think that Chen had a good chance to hold them to his patented two runs over six innings, though probably not with such gaudy strikeout numbers as we saw in the last start.

Mathis gives Realmuto a breather at catcher and bats eighth.

Notes

- The Atlanta Braves, as anticipated, have fired Fredi Gonzalez after their woeful start.

Bold Prediction: Marlins take game two, 6-2.