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The Marlins take their final Turner Field series in starting today as the Fish take on the pesky Atlanta Braves for three before an off day Thursday.
The Braves, as you probably know, have been a thorn in the side of the Marlins all year long, embarrassingly sweeping them in April when they looked like the worst team in baseball, and otherwise annoyingly jolting them off of a solid season to the tune of an 8-4 record against.
With 19 games to go including today's matchup and still (barely) within striking distance of the second wild card at five games out, it will be crucial for the Marlins to treat the Braves like the little sister that they are. I've said it all year long: If you can't beat the Braves (or teams like them), then you don't deserve to go to the playoffs, injuries be damned. Hopefully doing what he was brought in to do will be Andrew Cashner for the Marlins, hopefully acting like an Atlanta Brave today will be Mike Foltynewicz.
Pitching Matchup
Team | Pitcher | ERA | FIP | Zips Projected ERA |
| ATL | Mike Foltynewicz | 4.16 | 4.41 | 4.72 |
| MIA | Andrew Cashner | 4.77 | 4.58 | 4.23 |
Foltynewicz had a rough spot in late July where he gave up a lot of walks and runs, but since then has pitched to a 3.40 ERA/3.73 FIP over his past seven starts, going 4-0 in 42 and a third's innings pitched while striking out 38 and only walking 11 batters. Foltynewicz is armed with a two seamer and a four seamer that tops out at 95 MPH that he'll throw with regularity, mixing in breaking balls roughly 30% of his starts. He's arguably been the Braves best starter not named Julio Teheran and should give Braves fans hope that they can start to lock in a more consistent rotation beyond the latter guy next season.
Cashner has been not great since the Marlins traded for him back in July, but he did put up his best start as a Fish in last Wednesday's 6-0 victory over the Phillies, where he went five and third shut out innings scattering four hits and two walks while striking out nine. Granted, it was the Phillies who are arguably the worst offense in baseball, but Cashner did what he was supposed to do to them, and you would think he could apply similiar results to the almost equally bad Braves lineup.
No Giancarlo Stanton today. He remains available for pinch hitting opportunities.
Bold Prediction: Cashner continues to pitch well, leads Marlins to 3-1 victory in game one.