Series Preview: Marlins vs. Mets (April 25-27)

Miami will look to Casey McGehee to stay hot in their upcoming series in the Big Apple. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

After notching their first road win of the season during the previous series with the Atlanta Braves, the Marlins will head north to take on the New York Mets. The Marlins currently have a 10-12 record while the Mets enter the series with a  12-10 record, good for a tie for second place in the N.L. East.

The Mets have been playing well to start the season, winning series’ against the Reds, Braves, and Cardinals, and sweeping the Diamondbacks. They have managed to do this despite having the worst batting average in the National League at .217 and a slugging percentage that is dead last in the majors by more than 30 points (.315). Where the Mets have been successful has been on the base paths. Despite struggling to get runners on base, they have the 3rd most stolen bases in the National League (19). This could be a challenge for the Marlins as Jarrod Saltalamacchia has been known to struggle throwing out runners in his career.

With a record above .500, and poor hitting, the Mets must have above average pitching right? Wrong again. New York is 11th out of 15 National League teams in ERA. The Mets are able to hang their hat on their defense. New York has the second highest fielding percentage in the National League and only have committed 11 errors on the season, also second best. Miami will have to rely on base hits, rather than mistakes to score their runs.

New York has been good at keeping games close. 9 of their 12 wins have come by 3 runs or less. The bottom line is this team is not built to put up big offensive numbers, much like the Marlins. It should be an interesting series of closely matched talent. The one significant edge seems to belong to the Marlins starting pitching. It will be imperative that they capitalize on it.

Pitching Matchups:

April 25th, 7:10PM EST
Marlins: Henderson Alvarez (1-2, 2.66 ERA, 14 SO)
Mets: Zack Wheeler (1-2, 4.63 ERA, 21 SO)

April 26th, 7:10PM EST
Marlins: Kevin Slowey (0-0, 4.15 ERA, 10 SO)
Mets: Jenrry Mejia (3-0, 1.99 ERA, 25 SO)

April 27th, 1:10PM EST
Marlins: Tom Koehler (2-1, 2.13 ERA, 18 SO)
Mets: Dillon Gee (1-1, 3.58 ERA, 21 SO)

Weather:

The weather should be pretty decent for New York this time of the year. There is a very slight chance of rain on Saturday afternoon but it should clear out by the time the game starts in the evening. The temperatures should be in the upper 50’s to low 60’s for the evening games and upper 50’s for the Sunday matinée.

Broadcast:

Fox Sports Florida will carry all the games on television, as will Glenn Geffner and the radio crew at 940 WINZ.

Bold Predictions:

I think this is the first road series that the Marlins will win. They do have some tough pitching match ups to face, but I believe they will be able to overcome it with stellar pitching of their own. It will likely come down to the series finale on Sunday, but I see the Marlins winning 2 out of 3 games.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, and Let’s Go Fish!