Miami Marlins @ Washington Nationals (4/20-4/22) Preview: The Off-Season Makeover Series

Soon after the Miami Marlins completed their sweep over the visiting Chicago Cubs, the Miami Heat kept their foot on the pedal against the city of Chicago. The Heat pulled out a much important win for themselves against their most likely Eastern Conference Finals foe. Miami owned Chicago this past week and it felt quite good. The Marlins and Heat now have an opportunity to the same to Washington. The Marlins will take on the Washington Nationals this weekend, while the Heat take on the Wizards. To read more about the Heat, check out our friends at All U Can Heat.

The Nationals come into this series leading the National League East and look really sharp early on. This is going to be a good test for the Marlins to gauge where they are at this point in the season. A series win would do a lot for this team going forward and their confidence.

The Marlins last road trip had them go 2-4 against the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies. The Marlins are hoping for a bit more success this time around. This series will feature some interesting pitching match ups as well.

Miami Marlins (7-6) @ Washington Nationals (10-4), April 20-22, Games 14-16

NL East Standings

Stadium: Nationals Park

Five-year Run PF*: 1.00

Five-year HR PF*: .99

Stadium Dimensions:

Left field line—337 ft.
Left-center field—377 ft.
Center field—402 ft.
Right-center field—370 ft.
Right field line—335 ft.

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

Projected Pitching Matchups

April 20: Carlos Zambrano vs. Ross Detwiler
April 21: Anibal Sanchez vs. Stephen Strasburg
April 22:  Josh Johnson vs. Gio Gonzalez

ZiPS In-Season Projections

Projected Lineup

Q/A Session

Unfortunately, I was not able to get the questions to the Nationals writers over at District on Deck on time. I will have the questions and answers posted separately later on. I am hoping for tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Notes:

• The Marlins will face some tough pitchers in this series. Their best chance of getting on the board with a win in this series will be game 1.
• Carlos Zambrano is hoping to improve on his last start, where he walked 6 hitters. Zambrano hopes to go deeper into the game for the Marlins
• Both Heath Bell‘s blown saves have come in Zambrano’s two starts.
• Ross Detwiler ended up throwing five innings and allowing five runs — one earned — on six hits in an 8-5 loss in his last start against the Reds.
• Game two features the first of two pitchers duels in this series.
• The second game will feature phenom pitcher Steven Strasburg. The Marlins have enjoyed some success against the hard throwing right hander. Hanley Ramirez is 3-for-5 in his career against Strasburg.
• He will be opposed by Anibal Sanchez, who has been the Marlins best pitcher this season.
• In 17 career starts against the Nationals, Sanchez is 7-0 with a 2.06 ERA. Sanchez will look to continue his dominance against the Nats.
• Gio Gonzalez will look to extend his hot start against the Marlins.
• Gonzalez has one career start vs the Marlins. That was last season when Gonzalez went 8 innings and struck out 9.
• Josh Johnson will oppose him. Johnson is 7-0 in his career against the Nats with a 3.14 ERA.
• The Marlins come into this series 1-2 against the NL East. The Nationals are 2-1.
• Giancarlo Stanton is still looking for his first home run of the season.

Prediction:

The Nationals take two of three from the Miami Marlins at home. The Marlins win the middle game when Anibal Sanchez outperforms Stephen Strasburg and gains more media attention as a top starter. Giancarlo Stanton will go deep twice for the Marlins.

April 24-26: @New York Mets

*April 27-30: vs Arizona Diamondbacks

May 1-3: @San Francisco Giants

*Get your tickets now from TiqIQ.

You can ‘Like’ Marlin Maniac by clicking here. You can follow Marlin Maniac on Twitter @MarlinManiac and you can follow Ehsan Kassim on Twitter at @ehsank24.