A key early series with the Marlins against our Atlanta Braves? Who’d have thunk?
The Atlanta Braves will play the Miami Marlins a total of 10 times in this shortened season, but this weekend’s series has the potential to boost the fortunes of this rag-tag group of waiver-wire warriors, while the Braves need to find a way to overcome these upstarts.
At least Atlanta will be able to do its best with pitching, as the scheduled starters are Kyle Wright, Max Fried, and Touki Toussaint… heretofore the most reliable(?) trio that they can roll out.
For their part, the Marlins really don’t have a great idea: Pablo Lopez is set to start their home opener — seriously, they haven’t had a home game yet — while a prospect named Undie Cided is penciled in for both of the weekend games right now.
Still: whatever they’re doing is working, for the fish have jumped out to an 8-4 record and a 1 game lead in the NL East, surviving a with 2-3 record against the Mets and Blue Jays over the past 5 games.
So how are they doing this? It doesn’t hurt that they beat the Orioles 4 times, but the numbers betray a team still operating with smoke and mirrors:
- 19th in hitting average, a paltry .235 (though 12th in runs/game)
- 20th in OPS+
- 19th in OBP
- Strikeout rate is 3.54 PA/K, not too far off from Atlanta’s 4.03 rate.
- 29.5 PA/HR (as compared to Atlanta’s 26.4)
I could give you their pitching numbers, but they are frankly too skewed to be representative of whatever reality might be thanks to their offensively-challenged opponents.
So why am I worried about this series? Several reasons:
- Ronald Acuna Jr. will miss the entire series (wrist)
- Ozzie Albies is still out (wrist)
- Matt Adams is still out
- Starting pitching (on-going concern)
- Consistent hitting has been elusive
- The intangibles
That last point is the key: that club finally gets back to Miami to find themselves in first place.
They are looking at a series with their chief rival in the Atlanta Braves and seeing a weakened club that’s missing multiple weapons.
Some of these players (how many are still active?) can remember just 3½ weeks ago when they came to Atlanta and effectively won both exhibition games (the first only going to the Braves thanks to an 8-run 8th inning).
This is their shot. This is their chance to prove to themselves and the division that they can compete. This is their playoff run… right here and right now.
The Braves and Marlins will play the rest of their games against one another in September, but the situation will be considerably different then… one way or another.
Atlanta finally got a real day off on Thursday for the first time this season. Hopefully they have rested up and come into Moby Dick stadium in Miami with their jaws squared up and their game faces on.
These Marlins — whoever they are — will be ready for them.