Atlanta Braves at Miami Marlins preview: Can the Braves hold on to first in the NL East?
After an extremely disappointing series against the Boston Red Sox ended with a defense-plagued loss last night, the Atlanta Braves travel to Marlins Park tonight to start a fresh series and (hopefully) get things back on track.
This series gets more interesting after looking at the standings and seeing that the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves are tied for the NL East lead, both teams sitting with 28-25 recods. The quality of the NL East is a large reason that the Braves are still at the top of the division at this point, but they need to start taking advantage today if they want to hold onto that claim.
The Marlins are the hottest team in the division over the past ten games and are also MLB’s best home team at this point, with a 20-8 record inside the fish tank. But, maybe that’s what the Braves need to secure a few wins because they sure couldn’t do anything against Boston coming off of a ten-game losing streak.
The Marlins are tossing Tom Koehler out on the mound against Julio Teheran for the Braves. Here’s a look at the numbers:
Tom Koehler: Koehler has been pretty luck this season. He’s boasting a 3.10 ERA, but both his FIP (4.35) and xFIP (4.45) are more than a full run higher. He’s leaving 80.8 percent of runners on base and opposing hitters are only managing a .229 BABIP–both of these things point to regression from Koehler as the season progresses. His career marks in these areas are 73.7 percent and .273 respectively. To highlight all of this, Koehler is striking out just 5.90 batters per nine innings and walking 3.54.
Julio Teheran: Julio Teheran is in a similar situation actually, as his BABIP, LOB and FIP/xFIP all indicate that he has been pretty lucky thus far. Teheran is still a better pitcher than Koehler, but if he continues striking out 7.19 batters per nine while walking 2.24 per nine (still solid numbers) we shouldn’t be surprised when his 1.77 ERA starts to climb a bit.
Here are the particulars for tonight’s game:
Date: May 30, 2014
Start Time: 7:10 PM
TV Channel: SportSouth (Local in the South)
Radio: 680 AM/106.7 FM (Local in Atlanta), Full list of Local Affiliates
Live Stream: MLB.tv (Click Here, $)
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