Miami Marlins at Atlanta Braves preview: Harang on the hill for split

After grabbing their first win of the series against the Miami Marlins last night, the Atlanta Braves will look to Aaron Harang to grab the last game and split the series.

The offense looked great last night and Ervin Santana had one of his better starts of the year, and it would be nice to see more of that in the final game. Harang has been terrific for the Braves for a solid month now and in his last five starts he’s given up just eight runs total. That’s solid. On the year, he’s looking at a 3.36 ERA and 3.54 FIP while striking out 7.22 batters per nine and walking 3.43. It would be nice to cut down on those walks, but it’s hard to complain about how Harang has pitched for the Braves this year.

On the mound for Miami is Henderson Alvarez. As good as Harang’s been for Atlanta this year, Alvarez has been even better for the Marlins. While he’s striking out just 5.50 batters per nine, Alvarez has managed to put up a 2.64 ERA despite allowing a .274 batting average to opposing hitters and a .313 BABIP. The saving grace for Alvarez is that he walks nobody, putting on just 1.61 per nine innings. That’s a 3.41 K/BB ratio and yes, that’s good.

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More from Atlanta Braves

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• Kyle Wright Shines As Folty Struggles In Atlanta Braves Loss To Red Sox
• Atlanta Braves: Grapefruit League Play Check Up
• Sean Newcomb’s Up & Down Day Against The Orioles

Here are tonight’s particulars:

Date: July 24, 2014

Start Time: 7:10 pm ET

TV Channel: SportSouth, MLB Network (National)

Radio: 680 AM/106.7 FM (Local in Atlanta), Full list of Local Affiliates

Live Stream: MLB.tv (Click Here, $)

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In addition to the above information and the break down of the pitching matchup, we wanted to start doing something else with our regular previews to spice things up a bit. From here on out for the rest of the season yours truly will be taking on fellow Editor Brad Rowland to predict the outcomes of each game.

At the end of every preview, we’ll both pick who we think is going to win and then keep a tally to see who is the more intelligent baseball fan. In addition, all of you guys can feel free to join in below in the comments and prove that you’re smarter than both of us.

Here are today’s picks:

Brad’s taking the Braves and his man Aaron Harang, while I’m going to side with Henderson Alvarez and the Marlins for the sake of keeping things interesting on day one.

It would be lame to be tied after the first game right? Right. Sound off in the comments with your predictions for the game and feel free to rub it in our faces when you beat us on twitter (@ATLBeatBlog).