Miami Marlins at San Diego Padres: Three Stories To Watch

San Diego- it means a whale…..of a Miami Marlins hitter is returning to one of his favorite haunts.

See what I did there?

But kidding aside, the Miami Marlins will continue their first West Coast swing of 2017 with a series against the San Diego Padres at beautiful Petco Park. On the one hand, the Padres have played better than expected so far this year, and are an opponent not to be taken lightly. But on the other, they enter play tonight sitting in 29th place in terms of team batting average.

This series presents another opportunity for the Marlins to prove they can reach that next level. To do so they will have to bring their best against top and bottom tier foes alike.

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The clubs played to a draw in 2016 at 3-3 a piece. While not as crushing as the Curse of the Braves, still rankled. Especially considering how handily Miami captured the first series, outscoring San Diego 21-12 at Petco.

Dropping that last series to the Mariners? Understandable, the Mariners have a decent team. Losing to the Padres though? That will burn up any goodwill the Fish earned for themselves with their recent Mets mastery, and twin near no-nos.

Need a reason to take some time away from reading up on next week’s NFL Draft to follow some of this series though? We’ll do you two better. Let’s dive in.