Mile-High Miami Marlins heading to Colorado to face Rockies

After winning two straight series the Miami Marlins lost two of three against the San Francisco Giants on the road.

Now Miami is heading to Colorado to face the Rockies. Unfortunately for the Miami Marlins, Colorado is a better team than what they faced last week in the Giants and Orioles. This will make this weekends series quite tough.

Friday June 22: Wei-Yin Chen (MIA) vs Jon Gray (COL)

BALTIMORE, MD – JUNE 16: Wei-Yin Chen #54 of the Miami Marlins pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on June 16, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

To kick off the series the Marlins send Wei-Yin Chen to the mound to face Colorado. Chen has faced only a few hitters in the lineup five times or more and the only one to have success is Nolan Arenado. Arenado has two hits in six at-bats including a double. Other notable Rockies hitters have not had the same level of success against Chen. Ian Desmond is 3-13 while D.J. LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon are both 1-5.

Luckily for the Marlins they have a successful track record against Jon Gray. As a team they are hitting .333 off of Gray. Derek Dietrich leads the way going 5-10 while Martin Prado is 3-6. In 33 at-bats the Marlins have only struck out four times against Gray and have managed only one double which came from Prado. Keeping the strikeouts down will be tough against Gray but Miami has shown previously that they can do it.

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Saturday June 23: Trevor Richards (MIA) vs Tyler Anderson (COL)

Marlins pitcher Trevor Richards does not have any past history against any batters in the Colorado lineup. To get an idea of how he will perform it is best to look at his season numbers. Richards has an ERA of 5.45 and a WHIP of 1.526, neither are impressive by any means. The fact that Richards walks just over four batters per nine innings could be an issue. Giving a team like the Rockies more baserunners is never a good thing, especially in Colorado where the ball seems to fly out of the ballpark. Luckily Richards avoided giving up a long ball in Baltimore in his last start so there is chance that he could avoid getting burned in Colorado.

Miami may have a problem with Colorado’s pitcher on Saturday. Tyler Anderson has held Marlins hitters to a .190 batting average in the past. Of the four hits surrendered by Anderson they are all singles. Also worth noting is that none of the hits drove in a run. It may be tough to put together a string of hits that could end up in runs on the board.

Sunday June 24: Caleb Smith (MIA) vs German Marquez (COL)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JUNE 18: Caleb Smith #31 of the Miami Marlins pitches against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning at AT&T Park on June 18, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

The Marlins return the favor to Colorado on Sunday with Caleb Smith on the mound. Smith has held Colorado to a .100 batting average previously and like Anderson has not allowed an extra-base hit or an RBI coming off any of the singles surrendered. Blackmon and Desmond are the only Colorado hitters to come away with a hit against Smith. Everyone else in the lineup has combined to go hitless.

Miami has gotten hits off of German Marquez in the past. The Marlins hitters combined are 7-29 with two doubles, three RBI and four walks. The only downside is that Marquez has eight strikeouts against the Marlins. This tendency to swing and miss against Marquez could prove problematic for Miami. Miami will need to do what they can to put the ball in play and avoid striking out.

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Miami has won six of their last 10 games including winning two of their three series. The Marlins offense was scoring 4.2 runs per game while their pitching staff gave up 4.6 runs per game. Miami gave up six or more runs in all four of their losses which led to being outscored during this timeframe. The Marlins will have to do their best to keep this weekend from being filled with high scoring affairs.

Colorado went 5-5 over the last 10 games, winning one of their three series during that span. The Rockies put up 6.5 runs per game while giving up 7.1 runs per game. The surprising part is that only four of their games took place at home. Three of their last five games the Rockies have scored 10 or more runs. Colorado can score in bunches at home and it is more than likely that it will happen this weekend.

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