Marlins Announce Starting Pitchers for Pivotal Series Against Phillies
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After taking two out of three games from the Cincinnati Reds in Ohio over the weekend, the Miami Marlins will open a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies in what is a huge series in terms of the National League wild-card race.
Miami will open the series on Monday night three games behind the Phillies and San Diego Padres, who are tied for the second and third wild-card spots. There is one team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, between Miami and Philadelphia and San Diego in the standings. The Diamondbacks are one game out for the final postseason spot.
If Miami is going to remain in the playoff hunt, they will need to win the series at least. Sweeping it would tie them with Philadelphia in the standings. However, taking two out of three will inch them a game closer to the Phillies.
Marlins Announce Starting Pitchers for Phillies Series
It will be a tall task right out of the gate on Monday night for Clayton McCullough's team, who will face the best Philadelphia has to offer in left-hander Christopher Sánchez. Here are the matchups for a pivotal three-game series in the middle of August.
- Monday: Janson Junk (6-7, 4.41 ERA) vs. Christopher Sánchez (15-4, 2.54 ERA), 6:40 p.m.
- Tuesday: TBD vs. Zack Wheeler (10-4, 2.89 ERA), 6:40 p.m.
- Wednesday: Sandy Alcantara (13-7, 3.43 ERA) vs. Aaron Nola (4-9, 5.33 ERA), 6:05 p.m.
You could make the case that the Phillies have the advantage in the first two games, but McCullough has not officially announced a starter at the time this article is being written. Sánchez is a Cy Young candidate, but Wheeler has struggled in August, with a 5.84 ERA in just 12.1 innings. He has been tagged for nine runs on 13 hits in his last two outings against the Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals.
As far as the Marlins go, they will need Alcantara to step up in the series final on Wednesday night. He will either be pitching to win the series, avoid a sweep or even complete a sweep. That latter seems like the less likely scenario, but you never know what can happen.
The schedule is going to get harder over the next couple of weeks for Miami, beginning in Philadelphia. The Marlins will return home for three games against the Washington Nationals before the Boston Red Sox come in for three. A four-game weekend wrap-around series against Washington the following weekend makes at least winning this series over the Phillies a must this week. If not, then Miami could begin to fade from what is going to be a heated wild-card race in the National League.
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