The Arizona Diamondbacks, who have won four of their past five contests, will start a three-game series against the host Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.
Arizona (9-7) and Miami (8-7) are off to positive starts, but they both play in brutally difficult divisions.
The Diamondbacks are in the National League West, the only division with three teams with double-digit wins (San Padres, San Francisco Giants and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers).
Miami is in the NL East, where the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves all had at least 89 wins last season.
Tuesday’s pitching matchup features a pair of right-handers — Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (2-1, 7.20 ERA) against Miami’s Connor Gillispie (0-1, 3.86).
Kelly, 36, is 32-18 since the start of 2022, with an abbreviated 2024 due to a shoulder injury. This season, his early walk rate has actually ballooned from 2.3 per nine innings last season to 5.4 this year.
In four career starts against the Marlins, Kelly is 0-2 with a 6.56 ERA. In one game in Miami, he is 0-1 with a 10.50 ERA.
Gillispie, a 27-year-old who has never faced Arizona, made his MLB debut last season, pitching three times in relief. All three of his outings this season have been starts, and the Marlins have dropped all three games.
The Marlins are coming off a series win over the Washington Nationals, taking two of three games.
First baseman Matt Mervis leads Miami in homers (five) and OPS (1.077), while outfielder Kyle Stowers and switch-hitting shortstop Xavier Edwards have also boosted the Marlins.
Stowers (.880 OPS) went 3-for-5 on Sunday, and Edwards extended his hit streak to seven games. In the Nationals series, Stowers went 7-for-13 with four extra-base hits. During his hit streak, Edwards is hitting 10-for-26 (.385).
At catcher, the Marlins are starting 25-year-old rookie Liam Hicks, who — prior to this season — had never played above Double-A.
However, with Nick Fortes going on the injured list last week due to an oblique strain, Hicks has stepped up with five RBIs over his past six games.
“Liam seems like he has really settled down,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “He’s doing nice things offensively and defensively.”
Arizona has a dangerous offense that is — for the moment — missing two-time All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte, who has a hamstring injury.
The Diamondbacks still have potent hitters such as first baseman Josh Naylor, who set career highs in Cleveland last year with 31 homers and 108 RBIs. Naylor was Miami’s first-round pick in 2015.
The Diamondbacks also have third baseman Eugenio Suarez and outfielders Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Corbin Carroll.
Suarez last year hit 28 doubles and 30 homers, driving in 101 runs. Gurriel, an All-Star in 2023, hit 57 doubles, four triples and 42 homers from 2023-24. Carroll’s numbers during that same span included 52 doubles, 47 homers, 24 triples and 89 steals.
Beyond the stats, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he’s proud of his team’s fighting spirit.
“These guys are very persistent,” Lovullo said, “and they’re hungry.”
–Field Level Media
