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Red-hot Pirates host Marlins Friday night
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 8/18/2016  at  10:30:00 PM
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MIAMI MARLINS

at PITTSBURGH PIRATES

First pitch: Friday, 7:00 p.m. ET
Line: N/A, Total: N/A

The Marlins and Pirates meet in Pittsburgh on Friday and both teams are looking to earn one of the NL Wild Card spots this year.

Miami was dealt a difficult blow by losing OF Giancarlo Stanton (Groin) for the remainder of the season, but the team still has a chance to make the postseason and must do its best to move on. The Marlins are very much in the NL Wild Card race and that makes this game with the Pirates a big one, as Pittsburgh also finds itself battling for one of those two spots. After a lousy first half of the season, the Pirates have seemingly put it together and will be hoping to win this one with RHP Gerrit Cole (7-8, 3.25 ERA, 86 K) on the mound. Cole will be going up against RHP Tom Koehler (9-8, 3.86 ERA, 107 K) of the Marlins, and that should be a very good showdown on the mound. Cole is still trying to find his groove after getting injured a few weeks ago and Koehler has pitched extremely well for the Marlins in recent weeks. The Pirates will be happy to be playing this one at home, as they are 33-25 when playing in Pittsburgh this season. They’re also 44-35 when playing in night games.

Tom Koehler has been huge for Miami this season, adding a much-needed reliable presence in the rotation. He’ll now be counted on again, as the team could really use a victory in Pittsburgh on Friday. Koehler doesn’t have stuff that will wow anybody, but he does effectively pitch to contact. He’ll be hoping to avoid making any mistakes on Friday, as he will be just fine in this game as long as he doesn’t allow too many homers. He has had no problem doing that lately, as he has allowed none in five of the past seven games for Miami. Offensively, the Marlins are going to need a huge game out of OF Christian Yelich. With Stanton out, Yelich is really the only guy in this lineup that is truly dangerous. He also happens to be dominant against Cole in his career, as he is 5-for-11 with two homers and four RBI against the righty. It’d be huge for Miami if he can get it going in this one.

Gerrit Cole is still trying to find his footing this season and just might be coming off of his worst start of the yearon Aug. 13. Cole faced the Dodgers in that game and allowed five earned runs on 12 hits in just 4.1 innings of work. He is going to need to find a way to do a better job of avoiding contact in this one. He is normally a guy that misses a ton of bats, so the Pirates will be hoping that Cole has his best stuff on Friday. Offensively, Pittsburgh will be expecting guys like OFs Andrew McCutchen and Gregory Polanco to come up with some big hits in this one. The two of them are a combined 7-for-13 with three doubles, a homer and three RBI against Koehler in their careers. McCutchen also happens to be red-hot coming into this one, as he has seen his average rise from .241 to .248 over the past 10 games and has racked up seven RBI over the past six games.


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