Colorado Rockies series preview: 3 games with the Miami Marlins

Starting today, the Colorado Rockies are embarking on a three city, nine game roadtrip before returning home to start the second week of May. The first of the Rockies three stops will be to Miami to face the Miami Marlins.

The Colorado Rockies enter the their nine game roadtrip with a record of 14-12, good enough for second place in the National League West to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are four games ahead of them, and two games back in the NL Wild Card hunt. The Miami Marlins have not played as well as they are 7-17, which is last in the NL East. Here are a few things to look for in the series.

The Marlins have been better than you think

Even though they are in last place, don’t let that fool you. They are returning home after facing the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA and the Marlins took two of the three games in the series. In fact, of their seven wins on the season, two came against the Dodgers, two came in their season opening series with the Cubs, and one came against the New York Yankees so it’s not like they came against terrible teams.

Also, they’ve had a really tough schedule. They have not yet faced a team that has been under .500 (and they probably won’t until they face the Cincinnati Reds next week).

They also seem to do well against good pitching. On Thursday, they knocked Clayton Kershaw out of the game after five innings after allowing five hits, three runs, and a surprising six walks. They also defeated Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka as they got seven runs (five earned) off him in five innings and defeated the Phillies when they sent Jake Arrieta to the mound, as he gave up three runs in four innings before being pulled.

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Their best three starters are starting against the Rockies this weekend

Jose Urena, their Opening Day starter, will oppose Tyler Anderson on Friday. He has been roughed up a bit this year (5.88 ERA, 1.385 WHIP) but his peripheral numbers aren’t as bad. His FIP is 4.58, his walk rate is 3.1 per nine innings (which is slightly lower than his career average), and only allows one home run per nine innings.

Wei-Yin Chen will make his return to the majors on Saturday against German Marquez. He is returning from a partially torn UCL in his elbow (if there was more damage, Tommy John surgery would have been required) so he only made nine appearances for the Marlins last season. However, when healthy, his pretty good. His last two healthy seasons were 2014 and 2015 and he had an ERA of 3.44 between those two years. Also, he averages about 2.5 walks per nine (1.8 between 2014 and 2015) so he relies on his control.

On Sunday, Jarlin Garcia is starting the Marlins. Who? What? I know, but he’s been their best starter this season. He made 68 appearances with the Marlins, all in relief, last year and was not great but he has been phenomenal as a starter for the Fish this season. He has an ERA of 1.00 in five games (three starts) and leads the NL in hits allowed as he is averaging 3.3 hits allowed per nine innings. His problem is that he walks more than four per nine innings.

In his three starts (against the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers), he has allowed one run in 17 innings (ERA of 0.53). His opponents have had a slash line of .093/.210/.198 in that span. Again, his problem, though, is walks as he allowed eight walks in that span. Chad Bettis will oppose him for the Rockies.

Parra’s return

Gerardo Parra missed the final game of the Cubs series and the most recent three game series against the San Diego Padres at Coors due to his four game suspension that he got for his actions in the brawl when the last time the Padres were at Coors.

Since he will be coming back, the Rockies will have to make a corresponding roster move for him to rejoin the team.

Next: Looking at some of the Rockies aces that never panned out

Stay tuned for updates on the potential roster moves and anything else both here and on Twitter, @RoxPileFS.