Philadelphia Phillies-Florida Marlins Preview

 The Marlins are ending a 9-game round trip with a series vs the Phillies. So far the Marlins have gone 4-2 on this road trip and would just need one more win to clinch a winning road trip. Marlins started the road trip by beating the Astros 2 out of 3. Then the Marlins went to Turner Field and took 2 of 3 from the Braves. In the last two games, the Marlins offense has begun to come to life again. With Ramirez and Stanton back in the lineup and Morrison and Sanchez switching spots in the order, the Marlins have scored 11 runs in the past two games after just scoring 1 run in the previous two games.

NL East Standings

Tm	W	L	Win%	GB
PHI	9	3	.750	–
FLA	7	5	.583	2.0
WSN	5	7	.417	4.0
ATL	5	8	.385	4.5
NYM	4	9	.308	5.5

Stadium: Citizens Bank Park
Five-year Run PF*: 1.02
Five-year HR PF*: 1.08
Stadium Dimensions:
Left Field: 334 ft.
Left-Center: 374
Center Field: 401
Right-Center: 369
Right Field: 330

*Five-year regressed park factors provided by Patriot here

Projected Pitching Matchups

April 15th: Javier Vazquez, RHP (1-1, 8.64 ERA) - Roy Oswalt, RHP (2-0, 2.25 ERA)
April 16th:Anibal Sanchez, RHP (0-1, 6.97 ERA) - Cole Hamels, LHP (1-1, 5.59 ERA)
April 17th:Chris Volstad, RHP (0-1, 5.59 ERA) - Joe Blanton, RHP (0-1, 10.45 ERA)

Projected Starting Lineups:

Marlins: 

Chris Coghlan, CF

Omar Infante, 2B

Hanley Ramirez, SS

Mike Stanton, RF

Logan Morrison, LF

Gaby Sanchez

John Buck, C

Donnie Murphy, 3B

Phillies:

Shane Victorino, CF

Placido Polanco, 3B

Jimmy Rollins, SS

Ryan Howard, 1B

Ben Fransisco, RF

Raul Ibanez, LF

Carlos Ruiz, C

Wilson Valdez, 2B

 

Key Positional Matchup: CF

Coghlan vs Victorino

This series is going to be a tough one for the Marlins. They are sending out the bottom three of their order. All of whom which are struggling right now. The Marlins face a tough matchup tonight in Roy Oswalt who's been throwing the ball well in his first two starts. Saturday's matchup is going to be a good one. Anibal Sanchez will look to bounce back after a disappointing start last time out against the Astros with Cole Hamels, who hasn't been steller either, as his counterpart. Sunday's matchup should be a slug fest. Volstad vs Blanton. Neither pitcher is that good and neither has been throwing well. Expect a lot of scoring in that game.

Prediction: The Marlins drop the game on Friday but bounce back to win the final two games in the series to end their first road trip with a 6-3 record.

I will have the Marlins-Braves recap up later tonight or tomorrow. Just wanted to get the series preview up before the series started this time.