Marlins at Blue Jays, June 1-2
Tuesday, June 01 2021 @ 02:30 PM EDT
Contributed by: Magpie
Welcome to Buffalo.
The Miami Marlins provide the opposition and I simply don't know why you'd name your team after a fish. Just because you're in Florida? It's a fish. It can't fly or sing. It just makes stupid fish faces. There were other options. The state animal is the panther, a name already snapped up by a hockey team. But the state bird is the mockingbird, and the Miami Mockingbirds trips pleasantly enough off the tongue. Florida is also, I am informed, famous for its Gators. (Not to mention its Florida Men.) You could even get really original, and call your team the Glades or something like that.
But no. You went with a fish.
The Marlins are actually a pretty good team, better than their record might suggest. They started the season by dropping six of their first seven games and they haven't been able to climb out of that hole yet. They've also had a run of misfortune in the close games (4-10).
I haven't heard of any of these guys either. But they're pretty good. They do play half their games in one of the game's better pitcher's parks, which depresses the offensive numbers somewhat. They'll be sending a couple of tall right-handers against the Jays. Sandy Alcantara, from the Dominican Republic, came over in the Marcell Ozuna deal: he's 13-23, 3.64 in 56 career starts with the Marlins. Pablo Lopez, from Venezuela, was acquired from Seattle in the David Phelps trade; he's 14-19, 4.09 in 53 starts as a Marlin.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas has just hit the IL with a dislocated index finger, but second baseman Jazz Chisholm is expected to be ready to play tonight and veteran centre fielder Starling Marte returned to the lineup over the weekend after missing about six weeks. Third baseman Brian Anderson will be out for some time yet
Cavan Biggio is about ready to return to the lineup. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but soon. He should be followed, in the next few weeks, by Thomas Hatch and Julian Merryweather. Which will be welcome, and interesting. We know where Merryweather is expected to fit in. I think the team was hoping Hatch might fill a spot in the rotation that may not be open any more, with Stripling pitching very well in his last two outings and Manoah being undefeated and all. It's a better problem than they've had to deal with before. Now if they can just get Chatwood and Mayza back to something approaching the form they showed in April....
Matchups:
Tue 1 June - Alcantara (2-4, 3.46) vs Ray (2-2, 3.81)
Wed 2 June - Lopez (1-3, 2.71) vs Manoah (1-0, 0.00)
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