The Miami Marlins will host the Atlanta Braves on Sunday at 1:10 pm EST. Miami won the first game of the series 8-2 on Friday, moving themselves two-games ahead of Atlanta for first place in the NL East.
Braves drop fourth-straight game
The Atlanta Braves dropped to 11-10 after suffering their fourth straight loss on Friday night.
Shortstop Dansby Swanson leads Atlanta with a .275 batting average and 14 RBI, and Ronald Acuna Jr. and Marcell Ozuna both led the team with four home runs so far. In 2019 Swanson hit .251 with 17 home runs and 65 RBI, while Ronald Acuna Jr. hit 41 home runs and 101 RBI last year. Marcell Ozuna has made an immediate impact after signing a one-year $18 million contract this offseason. Ozuna hit 29 home runs with 89 RBI as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019. Freddie Freeman is batting .268 with three home runs and 12 RBI so this far this season after batting .295 with 38 home runs and a team-high 121 RBI in 2019.
Collectively the Atlanta Braves are batting .245 and averaging five runs per game, which both are 12th in MLB. As a pitching staff, the Braves have 20th with a 4.55team ERA, which has jumped up almost a full run for where it was four games ago. Currently, the Braves have not yet announced a starting pitcher for this game. The Braves have suffered several setbacks between injuries and poor performances to their original projected rotation before the beginning of the season.
Are the Marlins forreal?
The Miami Marlins have been one of the biggest stories of the 2020 MLB season. After starting the season with a 2-1 record, the Marlins then had all of their games postponed from July 27 until August 4 because the Marlins had at least 18 players test positive for COVID-19. The Marlins have won seven of their last ten games since the long layoff, improving their record to 9-4 overall.
As a team, Miami is 14th in MLB batting .241 and seventh averaging 5.2 runs per game. The Marlin's have gotten good production from their corner infielders Jesus Aguilar and Brian Anderson. Aguilar is batting .306 average with four home runs and 15 RBI, and Anderson has a .370 OPP with four homers and 14 RBI.
The pitching staff for Miami is 11th in baseball with a 4.04 ERA on the season. For Sunday, Elieser Hernandez is listed to make his third start of the season Hernandez was 3-5 with a 5.03 ERA in 2019. This season he has 2.79 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, and ten strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings pitched but have not yet appeared in a decision,
Notable Trends
- Marlins are 6-1 in their last 7 games following a win
- Marlins are 8-3 in their last 11 games overall
- Braves are 2-5 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record
- Braves are 1-4 in their last 5 road games
