Marlins vs. Nationals: Start time, how to watch, game thread and Fish Picks—July 4, 2019

Welcome to Thursday’s Marlins (32-52) vs. Nationals (44-41) Independence Day edition game thread.

Throughout the 2019 season, Fish Stripes is your home for daily Fish Picks prop bets. The monthly points leader for July, August, etc. wins Fish Stripes merchandise prizes. We’re also saving something special for the overall full-season points leader. The best seller in our store: Caleb “KKKKKKKaleb” Smith shirts!

(New items coming this month...)

Grid View

The Fish Picks leaderboard will update daily to let you know where you stand.

Nationals Lineup

1. SS Trea Turner
2. RF Gerardo Parra
3. 3B Anthony Rendon
4. LF Juan Soto
5. 1B Ryan Zimmerman
6. C Kurt Suzuki
7. 2B Brian Dozier
8. CF Víctor Robles
9. P Aníbal Sánchez (3.82 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 21.5 K%, 28.1 Hard Hit% in 77.2 IP)

Notes: After a sluggish start to the 2019 season, Sánchez has found consistency. The veteran right-hander has 32 strikeouts compared to only five walks over his last six outings. Sánchez recently became the seventh Venezuelan pitcher to reach 100 MLB wins...Sean Doolittle worked each of the first two games of this series, including 33 pitches on Wednesday. He has not pitched three straight days at any point since April 2018. That combined with the early start time would suggest he’s unavailable.

Baseball Savant

Marlins Lineup

1. SS Miguel Rojas
2. RF César Puello
3. 1B Garrett Cooper
4. 2B Starlin Castro
5. C Jorge Alfaro
6. LF Harold Ramírez
7. CF JT Riddle
8. 3B Yadiel Rivera
9. P Elieser Hernandez (4.07 ERA, 4.20 FIP, 25.7 K%, 29.9 Hard Hit% in 24.1 IP)

Notes: The Marlins are 13-13 all time on the Fourth of July, the team says, though they’re 0-1 when playing the Nats on the holiday...César Puello fun fact posted to Twitter last night, in case you missed it. He has been hit by a pitch in his only two bases-loaded plate appearances since arriving in last month’s trade. No Marlin has ever had three HBPs in that situation in a single season, so Puello has a few months remaining to make history...With Caleb Smith returning to the rotation this weekend, I’ll be curious to see what happens with Hernandez. His stats are solid and he’s been even more impressive going by the eye test.

Maybe Hernandez gets squeezed out of the rotation, but hard to imagine a demotion to Triple-A considering the positive impact he could have in relief.

How to watch/listen/follow

The game gets underway at 11:05 a.m. ET (yes, you read that correctly). Watch on FOX Sports Florida and via MLB.TV or listen on 940 WINZ.

Fish Picks

Please comment below or tweet to @fishstripes with your picks for the following props. The contest locks at first pitch.

1. Which team hits the first home run? (Marlins/Nationals)
2. Over/Under 5.5 Elieser Hernandez strikeouts? (Over/Under)
3. Over/Under 1.5 Miguel Rojas total bases? (Over/Under)
4. Will Sergio Romo make an appearance? (Yes/No)
5. Who wins? (Marlins/Nationals)