Miami Marlins vs. Arizona Diamondbacks: 3 Stories To Watch

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The Miami Marlins will look to see if they can keep things rolling against a team that has been rolling since Opening Day.

The Angels might have had Mike Trout, but were only a .500 team when they hit Marlins Park. The Phillies showed up as something significantly less than a .500 team. But this evening, the Miami Marlins start a four-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, a club essentially tied for the title of second best team in all of baseball.

Yea, this is going be tougher sledding for the Fish.

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Offense will be the big theme of this series, one which is probably one of the surprise mismatches of the 2017 season. Based on last year’s performance, the Fish entered the year as the better team. Miami went 4-2 against Arizona last season. (The only two losses naturally being the two games I attended in Phoenix). In fact, Miami outright swept them at Marlins Park. However, this season has seen everything go right for the Diamondbacks, while the Marlins have had just about everything go wrong. Even if you account for the loss of Jose Fernandez and the return of A.J. Pollock, the respective 2017 fortunes of Miami and Arizona have definitely come as a surprise to the league.

Of course, the way they have been hitting, the Marlins might be able to hang with anyone.

The tale of the past week is a substantially different from the one told during the rest of May, and there’s just as much reason to hope for a thrilling series as there is to fear a long weekend. So without further ado, here are your three stories to watch. From the clicking bats of the Marlins, to a showdown of scorching first basemen, to the fate of a fragile slugger, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s dive in.

Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports /

Will This Hot Pace Continue?

Over the past week, the Miami Marlins have been rolling. Season long numbers have Arizona outperforming Miami in just about every way possible outside of a narrow gap in batting average. The past week though? The disparity is glaring, and it’s all in the Marlins favor.

Hitting and pitching alike sees the Fish way ahead of the D-Backs. Tied for the NL lead in runs, tops in average, second in HRs….things are clicking in a big way. The past week of pitching has suddenly seen the Marlins post the third best ERA in the NL, and fourth best in the entire league.

Arizona hasn’t been bad my any means on the mound- twelfth best in the game over that stretch. The teams have also gone an identical 7-3 over their last ten games. But an ERA of 2.76 stacked against a 3.48 one is a significant edge, especially when the team with the pitching advantage is batting .296 as opposed to .238. Scoring will be the story here. If the Marlins can keep putting up runs- they’ve been averaging nearly 6 runs per game during this run- they should be able to pull off the split. At minimum.

Positive pitching numbers aside, I would not expect to enjoy a series of pitcher’s duels. If the Marlins aren’t clubbing their way to victory, the Diamondbacks will have plenty to go clubbing about this weekend.

Who Wins The First Base Showcase?

Spoiler alert for the next edition of Three Miami Marlins Stories To Watch. If Justin Bour has another series like the last several series, this is going to be a repeat question.

Because if you want to know who has been absolutely, uncontestedly, the best first baseman in the National League for the entire month of May, I’d be happy to tell you.

It’s Justin Bour. And it really isn’t close.

Bour batted .344 in May, good enough to lead his position in the NL. His 11 HRs led all of baseball, at any position. For the month, he leads Goldschmidt by about fifty points worth of batting average. For the past week, Bour has been a touch hotter, hitting .348. Goldschmidt has batted .160 during that same span.

However, Bour is receiving nearly zero love in the All-Star voting, whereas the next two starting first basemen the Marlins will come across are practically locks for the roster. Goldschmidt at least has been good overall. In fact, he’s arguably the third best position player the Fish have had to deal with this season behind Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. There’s been no evidence of it lately though, and as such, the Marlins have a real opportunity here.

For themselves, and for their much in lead of fan love first baseman.

Will The Miami Marlins Get Their All-Star Slugger Back For This Series?

Lastly, we close with the first 2017 edition of The Injury Chronicles of Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton left Tuesday night’s pummeling of Philadelphia early, which seemed innocuous enough until fans found out it wasn’t just the MLB equivalent of a Little League Mercy Rule. The Miami Marlins are looking at another Stanton injury, and this series is the test of whether fans need to be worried or not about it.

I feel I should clarify at this point that every indication is that it is a minor injury. Not a big deal. Could have played yesterday, club is just being cautious, etc. No need to worry, just enjoy Ichiro, and so on.

But no Stanton injury has ever been minor. So yeah, I’m a little concerned.

Stanton has been explosively productive for the past week plus, especially since sliding into the No. 2 hole in the order. That much was true heading into the Philadelphia series, and then he kept it going in the first two of that one. He has been the definition of streaky for so much of his career, that even a couple games off for a minor ailment could throw a wrench in the slugger’s swing. The Marlins can also ill afford to lose another starting position player period, let alone their best player.

Next: Miami Marlins: A 30 day plan to National League relevancy

Seeing Stanton return this weekend, and return without acting like he’s worried about his leg, will provide Marlins fans a very quick answer as to whether they can dream of June being any better than May.

Not to mention whether or not we’re going to have anything to look forward to during All-Star Week that has to do with the Miami Marlins roster.

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