Rockies vs. Marlins Game Preview 4/2/14 (Game 3)

The Miami Marlins will take the field at Marlins Park again tonight to face the Colorado Rockies. Game 3 of the 4 game series will get underway at 7:05 EST. The Marlins will look to win their third straight to start the season, already the best start since 2009 when they began 4-0.

Miami will send Henderson Alvarez to the mound for his first start since throwing a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers in the last game of 2013 season. Colorado will counter with Jordan Lyles who has taken the place in the rotation of the injured Tyler Chatwood.

The first two games have been polar opposites for the Marlins, yet yielded the same results. The first game was an offensive explosion as the Marlins scored 10 runs in the victory. The second game saw Miami rely on strong pitching and timely hitting as they managed to score 4 runs on 5 hits.

Here are the 2013 numbers for the pitchers:

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Henderson Alvarez

Year	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB	Awards
2013	5	6	.455	3.59	17	17	0	1	1	0	102.2	90	42	41	2	27	1	57	7	1	4	418	108	1.140	7.9	0.2	2.4	5.0	2.11

Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Jordan Lyles

Year	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB	Awards
2013	7	9	.438	5.59	27	25	1	0	0	1	141.2	165	98	88	17	49	1	93	11	2	5	642	72	1.511	10.5	1.1	3.1	5.9	1.90

Here is the announced lineup for the Marlins

Christian Yelich – LF
Derek Dietrich – 2B
Giancarlo Stanton – RF
Garrett Jones – 1B
Casey McGehee – 3B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia – C
Marcell Ozuna – CF
Adeiny Hechavarria – SS

This lineup has one significant change in it. Derek Dietrich will get the start at second base in lieu of Jeff Baker who has started the previous 2 games, both against lefties. Since Lyles is a right-hander, Dietrich will get the start. I am excited to see how well Derek performs considering his strong spring training.

I really like this matchup for the Fish. Alvarez thrives on control and keeping the ball down, which should be very helpful against the Rockies, whose strength is certainly the long-ball. I predict that the Marlins will win this game 6-3 and Garrett Jones will get his first home run of the season. Go Marlins!

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