The Miami Marlins will open a road series at Great American Ball Park against the Cincinnati Reds. Miami is last in the NL East and find themselves 18 games below .500 at 51-69 and are coming off being swept by the Braves. The Reds have had a strong second half of the season and are back in the mix for making a playoff run, currently just 1.5 games back of the Padres for the second wildcard spot but have lost six of their last ten games.
Miami is a below-average offense and comes in hitting .237 and are scoring 4 runs per game which ranks 27th in the MLB in scoring offense. First baseman Jesus Aguilar has led the offense and is having another productive season, leading the Marlins with 22 homeruns and 84 RBIs. Veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas leads the team in batting hitting .274, a small regression after back-to-back career seasons.
Zach Thompson will get the start for the Marlins and hope to continue his excellent rookie season where he’s posted a 2.91 ERA in 11 starts. Thompson is just 27-years-old, and the right-hander is coming off one of the best starts of his career pitching six strong innings allowing a run on four hits and striking out three in a 5-4 win over the Cubs.
Cincinnati is a potent offense hitting .253 as a team and with 5.08 runs per game, rank 5th in the MLB in both respectively. First baseman Joey Votto has led the way hitting .281 with 26 homeruns and 76 RBIs, leading the Reds in both homeruns and RBIs. Right fielder Nick Castellanos is having an excellent season hitting .313 (3rd in the MLB) and trails closely behind Votto with 21 homeruns and 64 RBIs.
The right-hander Luis Castillo will get the start for the Reds, he’s in the midst of one of his worst seasons in the MLB going 6-12 with a 4.51 ERA. Castillo has been a consistent piece to the Reds rotation for the last five seasons and has a career 3.81 ERA, the walks are way up this season and the strikeouts are down. In his last outing, Castillo pitched 6 ⅔ allowing five runs on three hits while striking out eight but the Reds lost 6-1.
