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The Marlins are fresh and ready to go after an off day and a very successful road trip which saw them go 7-3 and climb back up to .500 ball. They look to improve upon a ghastly 2-7 mark at home today against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Diamondbacks are coming off of getting swept in a three game set by the surprising first place Colorado Rockies, and sit at 12-15 on the season. Patrick Corbin will be on the mound for the desert snakes and Justin Nicolino will be making his second start of the season for the deep sea fish.
Pitching Matchup
| Team | Starter | ERA | FIP | ZiPS Proj. ERA |
| ARI | Patrick Corbin | 4.88 | 5.72 | 4.14 |
| MIA | Justin Nicolino | 0.00 | 3.35 | 4.45 |
AZ Snake Pit's Nate Rowan had a concise summary of Corbin in his series preview that I think will serve better than anything I conjure up:
"Corbin has been very hit or miss this year, with two dominant starts and 3 mediocre ones. After being very good in 2013 and 2015, what's going on this year? The number that jumps out is the percentage of pitches swung at outside the strike zone. His career O-Swing % is 34%, but this year it is way down to 25%. He has struggled to get guys to chase pitches outside the zone, and has gotten himself into more hitters' count this year than in the past."
He really struggled his last go round, issuing five walks and giving up seven runs to the St. Louis Cardinals over five and two third's innings.
Nicolino was sterling in his debut against the Dodgers in Los Angeles last week, going seven and two third's innings while giving out a pair each of strikeouts, walks and hits. As has been noted, Nicolino doesn't strike out a ton of guys so we don't expect the 0.00 ERA to continue, but it sure looks shiny right now. As long as he's not walking the world like his predecessor in the rotation was, he should continue to garner starts.
Bold Prediction: Marlins take game one by a score of 5-3.