Marlins Preview

Let me start out by saying I love our chances. It's time for us to start winning games, and this is an opportune time that I think we will take advantage of. You all know that I am pretty high on the Marlins this year, but definitely not in regards to matching up with the Phillies. Ramirez Uggla and Cantu are all bona fide starters on any Phillie Killer team. Ramirez fits that against any team I think, Uggla kills Brett Myers, and Cantu hit .366 with 6 home runs against the Phils last year. And their starters dominated us for the most part last year. With all of that being said, I still like our matchup. The Phillies always suck against young starters they are facing for the first time, which was basically every game against the Marlins last season. The Phillies do not struggle against pitchers they've seen before. Being the 2nd 3rd or 4th time around against these pitchers for most of our hitters, I couldn't be less worried about the bats. As for our pitching, I think it's about to take a turn for the better. I just have a feeling that they're going to step up soon, and this series is perfect. I think Myers has looked the best of any starter in terms of consistency this season, and I think he will only get better. He faces Josh Johnson, who we actually have had a lot of success against. Park is a question mark obviously, and he pitches against Volstad who I think we've faced twice with little success. That's perfect, we have him right where we want him, I think we light him up. The only starter we should worry about is Badenhop on Sunday, but that's nothing to worry about because Jamie's pitching for us. The Marlins are a young team who can hit the snot out of the ball, something that sucks really bad against Jamie Moyer. If I remember correctly, he won his first 11 career starts against the Marlins or something ridiculous before losing one last year (a game I attended with Aaron). I would say we win game 1 with ease. Game 2 will be a high scoring affair that we take, and game 3 will be the opposite and we'll win 3-1 or something. It should be a fun series and we'll be back over .500 before you know it.

The Marlins just got swept by the Pirates, too. And rarely does something actually mean the Pirates are good, so it must mean the Marlins are struggling.