The Miami Marlins head to Oakland Coliseum for their one and only three-game interleague series of the season against the Oakland Athletics. After getting swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Marlins are hopeful to put an end to a four-game losing streak by stealing Monday’s opener against the A’s. They’ll have to get past Adam Oller, who is slated to start at pitcher across from Marlins’ starting righty Pablo Lopez.
The Marlins allowed 17 combined runs in their last two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
They got lit up by one of the hardest hitting offenses in the league without a response on the road. Could they be in for some déjà vu against Oakland on Monday?
I wouldn’t count on it.
The A’s are lightyears behind the Dodgers offensively, and their pitching rotation is significantly less scary. At the very least, the Marlins won’t be entering this game with that sinking feeling that they’ll be in over their heads from the start. Granted, that doesn’t mean the team shouldn’t prioritize a better defensive performance to mask how bad the offense is right now. Miami is only averaging 1.33 runs in their last three games.
It doesn’t matter how good the pitching is for a team, but they aren’t winning many games if they aren’t getting runners across home plate. And Pablo Lopez isn’t exactly dominating right now, either. He has lost on the mound in three of his last four outings pitching. The starting righty is throwing a 3.83 ERA with a 7-8 record on the season.