April 26-28: Marlins at Nationals Series Preview

Let’s play 3 in the nation’s capital.

The Miami Marlins took two of three games from the defending champions over the weekend, putting themselves one game below .500. They’ll play three in the nation’s capital against the Washington Nationals this week, before returning home for a weekend series.

Here’s everything you need to know for the upcoming series:

• Schedule, Watch, Listen
• Probable Pitchers
• Recent Lineups
• What To Watch For
• Poll: How Will This Series Play Out?

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Schedule, Watch, Listen

Tuesday, April 26 at 7:05 pm

Wednesday, April 27 at 7:05 pm

Thursday, April 28 at 1:05 pm

• TV broadcast for all 3 games: Bally Sports Florida (Paul Severino and J.P. Arencibia)
• Radio broadcast for all 3 games: 940 AM WINZ (Glenn Geffner and Rod Allen), WAQI 710

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Probable Pitchers

Friday: RHP Sandy Alcantara vs. RHP Josiah Gray

• Alcantara: 1.86 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 19.7 K%, 25.0 HardContact% in 19.1 IP
• Gray: 3.14 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 31.0 K%, 26.3 HardContact% in 14.1 IP

Saturday: RHP Pablo López vs. RHP Erick Fedde

• López: 0.52 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 26.6 K%, 23.4 HardContact% in 17.1 IP
• Fedde: 6.75 ERA, 1.65 WHIP, 22.6 K%, 29.0 HardContact% in 13.1 IP

Sunday: LHP Trevor Rogers vs. WAS TBA

• Rogers: 6.94 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, 18.2 K%, 21.8 HardContact% in 11.2 IP
• WAS TBA: Will update when announced

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Projected Lineups

Roster Resource / FanGraphs

Roster Resource / FanGraphs

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What to watch for on…

Tuesday: Juan Soto is struggling. Will the Marlins keep him quiet?

• In his last 7 games, Soto is 4-for-27 with 2 singles, 2 doubles, 6 strikeouts, and 6 walks.
• Soto’s 18% walk rate over the last week isn’t out of the ordinary, but the 18% strikeout rate is. When he’s made contact recently, the quality is also uncharacteristically bad. The average exit velocity of Soto’s batted balls over the last seven days is a meager 84.9%; we’re used to an exit velo of upwards of 90.0 mph from Soto. He’s also been driving a lot weakly hit of balls into the ground recently (-2 average launch angle). He does tend to hit fewer fly balls than the average hitter, but the ground balls and line drives generally come with hard contact. This has allowed him to be one of the most productive hitters in baseball.
• Soto won’t stay quiet for long. The Marlins just hope he doesn’t get hot in this series. Unfortunately, he’s hit well against Alcantara (8-for-22, 2 home runs) and López (8-for-19, 3 doubles, 2 home runs).

Wednesday: ERA leader Pablo López.

• Leading the major leagues with a 0.52 ERA: Marlins right-hander Pablo López.
• López has been absolutely magnificent in his three starts this season. He’s getting a ton of swing-and-misses on his changeup, and his four-seam fastball has been really effective too. Overall, he has a 35.7% CSW (called strike + whiff) rate, 15th best among qualified pitchers.

Thursday: Improvement from Trevor Rogers.

• Rogers is coming off a better start against the Braves where he allowed 1 unearned run on 4 hits and 2 walks. He also struck out 5 in 5.0 innings.
• Marlins got used to solid outings from Rogers in 2021, knowing he’d always be competitive and give his team a chance to win every time he stepped on the mound. His start to 2022 was rockier, but he looked better in his third start of the season. He’ll face a floundering Nationals offense that has been outscored 11-to-39 and lost five in a row coming into this series.