The 32-37 Baltimore Orioles will head to Miami to face the Florida Marlins for 3 games starting Tuesday night.
The Marlins are currently 34-36 overall, pending their game tonight at home with the New York Yankees.
At home, Florida has a record of 16-20.
The scheduled pitching match-ups are:
Tuesday 6/23: Uehara vs Andrew Miller
Wed 6/24: Berken vs Ricky Nolasco
Thurs 6/25: Hill vs Sean West
Miller was a 2006 1st round pick of the Detroit Tigers, that came to the Marlins in the Cabrera deal.
The 24 year-old lefty, is 2-3, with a 4.56 era. In 51.1 innings of work, Miller has allowed 53 hits, 27 walks, with 43 k’s.
After a impressive 2008 season, where Nolasco had 186 k’s in 212.1 innings, and won 15 games, not much has gone right for him in 2009.
For the year, Nolasco is 3-6, with a 7.15 era. In 61.2 innings, Nolasco has allowed 82 hits, 17 walks, with 55 k’s.
In 2008, Nolasco held opposing hits to a .686 OPS, in 2009 hitters have a .888 OPS against him.
It should be mentioned that Nolasco has had 3 straight strong starts, where he has allowed 5 er in his last 18 innings of work.
On Thursday, the O’s will see yet another lefty in 6’8, 23 year-old Sean West.
West will be making his 7th Major League start for his career. So far, West is 2-2, with a 3.97 era. In 34 innings, he has allowed 28 hits, 15 walks, and has 22 k’s.
West was selected in the Supplemental round of the 2005 draft.
If you are the O’s going into this series, you have to allow someone other than SS Hanley Ramirez to beat you. That is not to say that Uggla, Hermida, Cantu, and Ross etc etc can not hurt you… but several of those players are struggling, and none are in the caliber of class of Ramirez.
If you can get into the Marlins bullpen, there is an opportunity for success. The Florida closer is Matt Lindstrom, who has allowed 19 walks in just 27.1 innings of work.
Berken and Hill both had their rope extended with their respective outings vs the New York Mets, and Philly. You will obviously be looking to see if they can follow-up, and build on those outings.
That said, the interesting start for this series is Uehara. Having pitched in relief for the last two seasons in Japan, there is concern about his ability to last the Summer in the rotation. Obviously there will be plenty of heat and humidity in Miami – seeing how he handles that, will be interesting to watch.
Owner
Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.