/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60632173/usa-today-9264687.0.0.0.jpg)
After last night's comeback, Miami is now in sole possession of the second Wild Card spot. Woohoo!
Now the Fish are tasked with increasing their slim lead in the standings over the likes of the Mets, Cardinals and Pirates. In order to increase that gap tonight, they will have to conquer one of Philadelphia's top young pitchers, while relying on a young pitcher who's had a shaky start to his Major League career thus far.
Pitching Matchup
Team | Starter | ERA | FIP | 2016 ZIPS Projected ERA |
MIA | Jose Urena | 7.52 | 4.88 | 4.55 |
PHI | Vincent Velasquez | 3.32 | 3.31 | 3.76 |
Jose Urena (1-1) was called up to fill the open rotation spot tonight. Urena was sent down more than a month ago after giving up 19 runs in his first 16 appearances of the season. Urena has pitched to a 3.99 ERA and 5.45 FIP in 38.1 innings in AAA New Orleans this season. At this point it seems like the Marlins are just throwing people into that fifth spot to see if anything sticks as they look to trade for another starter before the end of the month.
Urena will be going up against Vince Velasquez (8-2), who is 3-0 with 20 K's in his three starts since his short stint on the disabled list, when he inexplicably hit the waiver wire in my fantasy league (much to my rejoice). Velasquez continues to rack up the strikeouts in his impressive breakout season, but has only pitched past the sixth inning once this year, so the Fish might have a chance to do some more late-inning damage tonight.