Miami Marlins Visit Atlanta Braves Series Preview: Chen, Straily, Urena Start

After 43 games, the Miami Marlins sit at 16-27 for the season. Winning games at that rate will yield a 60-102 season. Enter the Atlanta Braves.

The Miami Marlins will pay a visit to the Atlanta Braves at Trustmark Park for three games, starting tonight. The Marlins have won by shutout three times this season, and lost six times without scoring. Their biggest margin of victory was eight runs, against the Yankees, 9-1. Conversely, they’ve lost games by scores of 14-2, 12-1, and 20-1.

On the other side of the diamond, the Braves have lost by shutout only once, and collectively tossed five. Lefty Sean Newcomb was the winning pitcher of record in three of them. In those three games he’s struck out 23, walked four, and allowed nine hits in 19 innings.

Newcomb faced Miami on May 13th, earlier this week, and limited the Marlins to one hit and four walks in six innings. Although the game didn’t yield a shutout for Atlanta, they did end up with a 4-3 victory. Newcomb whiffed six in the start, and has made 54 batters miss this season in 46 2/3 innings.

Starting Pitching

Friday

Friday, the Miami Marlins will open the series against Newcomb (4-1, 2.51). His counterpart, Dan Straily (1-0, 5.54) is making his fourth start after an injury delay to begin the season. In seven games against the Braves through his career, he has held opposing batters to a .261/.292/.457 slashline, with six homers among 15 extra base hits surrendered. He’s gone 3-2 with a 5.24 ERA, a 1.456 slashline, and 36 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings. Newcomb is 1-1 in three starts against the Marlins, with a 3.18 ERA, a 1.412 WHIP, and a .213/.333/.361 opposing slashline.

Saturday

On Saturday, José Ureña (0-6, 4.38) will make his 10th start of the season. Ureña has held batters to a 1.25 WHIP and has earned a 4.38 ERA. The Marlins have not given Ureña very much run support, crossing the plate just 22 times over his starts. That’s 2.44 runs per game, and the Miami Marlins have lost every one. Against the Braves, Ureña has held batters to a .248/.341/.422 slashline, striking out 28 in 43 1/3 innings. He’s gone 2-4 with a 5.40 ERA and a 1.362 WHIP. Atlanta has yet to designate a starter for the middle game.

Sunday

In the series closing matinee, early Sunday afternoon, Wei-Yin Chen will take on Julio Teheran. Teheran is 4-1 with a 3.49 this season, with a 1.16 WHIP and 43 K’s in 49 innings. Teheran has had middling success against the Miami Marlins, as evidenced by his .262/.314/.405 opposing slashline. He has struck out 89 Marlins in 105 2/3 innings, earned a 1.278 WHIP, and gone 6-5 with a 3.49 ERA.

Chen will be pitching in his fifth game this season after getting a late start to the campaign. He’s gone 1-2 with a 7.56 ERA, nine strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings, and a 1.800 WHIP. Opponents have hit .297/.403/.703 against him in that small sample size, with six home runs. In five starts against the Braves, Chen has allowed a .242/.380/.323 slashline, and not surrendered a home run. He’s 1-1 with a 2.93 ERA and a 1.048 WHIP. The Braves are Chen’s favorite NL East opponent due to this relative success.

Braves Starting Lineup

According to the depth chart at MLB.COM:

C – Tyler Flowers
1B – Freddie Freeman
2B – Ozzie Albies
SS – Johan Camargo
3B – Jose Bautista
LF – Ronald Acu ña Jr.
CF – Ender Inciarte
RF – Nick Markakis

History

The Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves have squared off 418 times up through now. That’s Miami’s second most prolific opponent, after the Philadelphia Phillies (422 games). Miami is .419 against the Braves, which is their worst winning percentage against any other NL East team. It’s their second worst in the National League behind the St. Louis Cardinals (.403).

Just FYI, the Braves are 10536-10538 since their inception as the Boston Red Stockings in 1876. That’s 117 years before the Marlins inception, and yet they’ve only won three World Series in that time, and only two in the last 100 years. The Marlins have also won two in the last 100 years, lol. The flip side of that is only one of Miami’s players would rank in Atlanta’s top 24 all-time WAR. Giancarlo Stanton‘s mark of 35.2 while with the Marlins would be 19th on the Braves’ list between Herman Long (35.5) and Tommy Holmes (34.7). So the Atlanta/Milwaukee/Boston Braves/Bees/Rustlers/Doves/Beaneaters/Red Stockings have 18 guys with better in-franchise careers than Stanton had with Miami. Staggering.

Integrated Team Leaders

Average

Nick Markakis .333
Freddie Freeman .325
Starlin Castro .296
Ozzie Albies .283
Brian Anderson .268

OBP

Freddie Freeman .435
Nick Markakis .408
Justin Bour .377
Brian Anderson .354
Starlin Castro .341

SLG

Ozzie Albies .598
Freddie Freeman .567
Nick Markakis .518
Justin Bour .468
Miguel Rojas .390

Hits

Nick Markakis 56
Ozzie Albies 52
Freddie Freeman 51
Starlin Castro 48
Ender Inciarte 46

2B

Ozzie Albies 15
Freddie Freeman 12
Brian Anderson 10
Nick Markakis 10
Starlin Castro 8

HR

Ozzie Albies 13
Justin Bour 9
Freddie Freeman 8
Nick Markakis 7
J.T. Realmuto 6

RBI

Freddie Freeman 32
Ozzie Albies 31
Nick Markakis 30
Justin Bour 23
Brian Anderson 21

ERA

Sean Newcomb 2.51
Mike Foltynewicz 2.87
Jarlin Garcia 3.14
Julio Teheran 3.49
Jose Urena 4.38

IP

Jose Urena 51.1
Julio Teheran 49.0
Mike Foltynewicz 47.0
Sean Newcomb 46.2
Brandon McCarthy 46.1

SO

Caleb Smith 57
Mike Foltynewicz 57
Sean Newcomb 54
Jose Urena 43
Julio Teheran 43

WHIP

Jarlin Garcia 1.05
Sean Newcomb 1.16
Julio Teheran 1.16
Jose Urena 1.25
Mike Foltynewicz 1.34

Next: J.T. Realmuto and Brad Ziegler Were Key to Marlins Success Against Los Angeles.

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Miami Marlins Visit Atlanta Braves: Series Preview