Game 56: Atlanta Braves @ Miami Marlins, Game Thread
and Ichthyomancy

Current Series

Braves lead the series 1-0

Atlanta Braves Talking Chop
@ Miami Marlins Fish Stripes

Wednesday, Jun 6, 2012, 7:10 PM EDT
Marlins Park

Randall Delgado vs Josh Johnson

Partly cloudy,rain. Winds blowing in from right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 85.

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The Miami Marlins are coming off their most horrific defeat of the season, an 11-0 trouncing by the Atlanta Braves. But, as with much of the baseball season, you take a loss and move on to the next game, and the Fish are planning to do just that tonight as they face the Braves in the second part of their three-game set. On the mound will be Josh Johnson, who will try to put a disappointing season to date further behind with what will hopefully be a good start. The Braves counter with rookie Randall Delgado, who has struggled so far in the majors after being a highly regarded prospect.

Josh Johnson has struggled to match his strong peripheral performance this season, and a good deal of that has to do with his .377 BABIP. Even with a velocity drop, that is sure to fall. However, his strikeouts are also down to a career-low 18.4 percent, so he is not exactly lighting up the world like he did in 2009 to 2011. He is looking tonight to reign in an Atlanta Braves team that stomped the Fish pitching staff last night for 11 runs and gave up two home runs to Dan Uggla.

Randall Delgado was a highly regarded pitching prospect for the Braves, but so far he has disappointed in the majors. He threw 35 innings last season out of the bullpen and though his 2.83 ERA looked shiny, his low strikeout rate and 5.14 FIP did not. So far this season, we have seen more of the same, as Delgado is only striking out 17.4 percent of his batters faced and walking 12 percent of them. In his last three starts, he's thrown 14 2/3 innings and struck out while walking 11. The Marlins hope for his struggles to continue.

Lineup

With the bottom of the order really struggling to pick up the rest of the lineup, Ozzie Guillen is shifting some players around tonight. Justin Ruggiano, who has impressed thus far in his limited PA, gets the start over Chris Coghlan, with Bryan Petersen staying in center field. John Buck, who had a decent game last night with a single and a walk, moves to the eighth spot in the lineup. The rest of the Marlins' lineup remains intact and should stay that way for a while.

Bold Prediction: Marlins def. Braves 5-3

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