Phillies Series Preview: at Miami Marlins

The Philadelphia Phillies travel to south Florida for a weekends series with the host Miami Marlins at Marlins Park.

The Fightin’ Phils are out on the road in the midst of a 10-games in 11 days trip that just left Saint Louis, where the club lost three out of four games to the Cardinals. They now head down to south Florida for a three game weekend set with the Miami Marlins, who just swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-gamer at Marlins Park.

The Fish and Phils are both surprising pundits thus far in the early stages of the 2016 season. The two NL East rivals are tied for the final National League Wildcard playoff berth at this point. The clubs have also battled evenly over the last two seasons, with the Phillies winning 10 of the 19 games in both 2014 and 2015.

The Marlins are led as they almost always are during any successful stretch in recent years by perhaps the most powerful slugger in the game today, right fielder Giancarlo Stanton. The 26-year old has a .272/.387/.609 slash line with a club-leading nine home runs and 22 RBI.

But the obvious game-changing talent of Stanton is not the only element of the Marlins’ offensive attack. His two outfield mates help make up one of the game’s top trios. 25-year old center fielder Marcell Ozuna is second on the club with five homers, tied for second with 14 RBI. 24-year old left fielder Christian Yelich has a .330/.443/.511 slash line with three homers, 14 RBI, and 16 runs scored.

Justin Bour, the 28-year old 1st baseman who finished 5th in last season’s NL Rookie of the Year voting, is having a solid sophomore campaign. Bour is hitting .276 with three homers and 12 RBI.

Veteran 3rd baseman Martin Prado doesn’t supply the classic pop of that position, but he is an outstanding hitter. Prado has a .374/.408/.440 slash line, leading the club with 34 hits.

The Marlins just lost speedy All-Star 2nd baseman Dee Gordon to a PED suspension in what appeared to be a crippling blow. However, 26-year old Derek Dietrich has stepped up big time. Dietrich has a .319/.429/.596 slash line with nine extra-base hits and 11 RBI.

Don Mattingly took over at the helm this season after five years as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. ‘Donnie Baseball’ during his Yankees playing days, he brings with him a record that includes having won the last three NL West crowns with the Dodgers.

When he goes to his bullpen, Mattingly receives tremendous work from rookie righty Kyle Barraclough, setup man David Phelps, and closer A.J. Ramos. Lefties Craig Breslow and Chris Narveson have both been weak links, and could prove an opportunity for right-handed Phillies bats late in the game.

The Phillies are fortunate in this series in that they will miss uber-talented right-handed starting pitcher Jose Fernandez. The 23-year old is in his first full season back from TJ surgery, and has three wins with a 47/16 K:BB ratio while allowing 29 hits over 33.2 innings.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

FRIDAY: Vincent Velasquez (4-1, 1.44 ERA) vs Wei-Yin Chen (2-1, 4.26 EA): Chen is one of the game’s most underrated lefty starting pitchers. The former Orioles pitcher made his only career start against the Phillies last June while with the O’s, and he dominated, shutting the Phils out on four hits over eight innings with nine strikeouts. He has failed to reach the 6th inning in two of his last three outings, and has struggled with his pitch counts in his last two starts, so the Phillies lineup needs to work him. Velasquez has been a revelation, even better than the club hoped when trading for him as the lead piece in the Giles deal with Houston over this past winter.

SATURDAY: Jeremy Hellickson (2-2, 4.88 ERA) vs Tom Koehler (2-3, 7.25 ERA): Koehler is a 30-year old right-hander who is a typical back-end starter. He has made at least 29 starts over each of the last three seasons for the Fish, and has allowed fewer hits than innings pitched in each. However, Koehler has been hit extremely hard this season, yielding 30 hits over 22.1 innings with just a 15/13 K:BB ratio. This is a guy who the feeble Phillies offensive attack needs to club. If they let a guy like Koehler off the hook without pounding him, there really is no hope for this group as currently constituted.

SUNDAY: Aaron Nola (2-2, 2.93 ERA) vs Justin Nicolino (2-0, 2.70 ERA): a 24-year old lefty, Nicolino is making just his third start of the season and the 15th of his big league career. He won his other two starts, shutting out the Dodgers over 7.1 innings in Los Angeles, and then allowing four earned on seven hits at home early last week. He has a 25/25 K:BB ratio over his first 87.1 career innings, so there is little chance that he will overpower even this weak Phils lineup. Nola is pitching as if he wants to make his first NL All-Star appearance.

KEYS TO PHILLIES VICTORY

ANYBODY, HIT – WOO HOO!: the Phillies are coming off a shutout, and have one of the worst offenses in baseball. Only the Braves and Yankees have scored fewer than their 90 runs. They are tied for 23rd in MLB with just 23 home runs. Their .223 team batting average and .280 on-base percentage are the worst in baseball. The Phillies pitching has kept them in all but a handful of games since the opening days of the season. The team needs to find more offense somehow, some way.

That’s it. Seriously. Anyone who has followed this Phillies team knows it. There is NO other key to this Phillies team winning other than some type of dramatic improvement in their offensive production.

BROADCAST SCHEDULE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE forecast for Marlins Park in Miami, Florida

Marlins Park has a retractable roof, so weather is not likely to be a factor as far as the game play is concerned. With a beautiful weekend in store, it is likely that the roof will be open for every game.

Friday Afternoon

Sunny, with a high near 80. Northwest wind around 9 mph.

Friday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 62. Light and variable wind becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph after midnight.

Saturday

Sunny, with a high near 79. Northwest wind 6 to 11 mph.

Saturday Night

Clear, with a low around 68. Northeast wind around 9 mph.

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 80. Northeast wind 7 to 11 mph.

INJURIES / DISABLED LIST

Miami Marlins

Philadelphia Phillies

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