History on Miami Marlins side in Saturday's showdown of former Opening Day starters

It won't get any better than this the rest of the season, Miami Marlins fans.

Marlins vs. Phillies, and more importantly, Sandy Alcantara vs. Jesus Luzardo.

The only things that could have topped this would have been a Sandy-Tariq Skubal duel next weekend or perhaps a chance to bounce the Mets from the playoffs during the season's final homestand. However, the schedule math and the standings look to make both of those very unlikely. So instead it is this upcoming Saturday afternoon showdown, live from loanDepot Park, between the last two Miami Marlins Opening Day starting pitchers that steals the show.

And if Marlins history is any guide, what a show it should be.

For Miami might be 2-5 against the Philadelphia in 2025. They might be 244-291 against them all time. But when two former Marlins Opening Day starting pitchers square off? Fans are often enough treated to a pitcher's duel, and almost always treated to a Marlins victory.

It's an obscure metric to be sure. But Miami's record when both starting pitchers once kicked off a baseball season for the Marlins?

That'd be 15-5.

The only thing crazier than the fact this event has happened that many times for the Marlins is just how long it has been since the last time it happened. That would be June of 2012, when Josh Johnson outdueled Josh Beckett in a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox. The Marlins have had 8 different Opening Day starters since that time, with only Alcantara remaining with the organization. Viewed in that light, it's quite the drought.

However, it's also a drought that makes a lot of sense when you remember that 5 of those 8 Opening Day starters aren't in the majors anymore. A combination of mediocrity, injury, and tragedy, paired with Alcantara's franchise record setting stability, served to put an end to what used to be a pretty regular occurrence in these parts.

Alex Fernandez and Kevin Brown. Kevin Brown and Livan Hernandez. Livan Hernandez and pretty much everyone that every pitched a Marlins opener. In fact, there was five year stretch where two actual Opening Day games featured this kind of showdown, with Hernandez being the opposing pitcher both times. From 1998 to 2012, there were only three seasons that failed to feature at least one of these rematches of ostensible Marlins aces.

Now that Luzardo is looking like an ace in Philadelphia, it already seems like these kinds of trips down memory lane are going to start happening more often once again. Marlins fans just need to hope that Saturday's other starting pitcher sticks around in Miami a little longer, and isn't also traded to a rival.

Or at the very least is traded to an AL team.