The Miami Marlins and Tampa bay Rays are playing on the MLB schedule this afternoon and the all-Florida interleague matchup comes from Tropicana Field and is streaming online live at 4:10 pm ET and has the Rays looking to avoid 10 losses in a row and they have been playing terribly, while the Marlins have been off to a surprising start and will try and continue that on Thursday.
The Marlins come into the game playing much better than the Rays and this matchup will finish off a two and two home and away set for the teams and comes before the Rays play the Mariners for four games. The Rays are playing very badly and they now are in the bottom of the AL East and the bottom of the league. The team is 14 games under .500 and have not been this bad since 2007 and they are hoping to avoid a 10 game losing streak on Thursday.
The Rays are playing more like the Devil Rays and they are just 23-37 on the season and fading fast and now they have basically no shot at making the playoffs unless they run off a great winning streak. The team is ranked 25th in runs and 22nd in batting average and they have just been terrible all around and the pitching has not been there due to injuries. The series next will be against the Mariners at home and the pitching matchup is Chris Young against Erik Bedard after Jacob Turner and Jake Odorizzi matchup. The Rays rank 21st in ERA and 27th in quality starts and they really need to get things going.
The Marlins are second in the NL East and that has been a surprise and they come in after winning over the Rays in three games and could sweep them. Giancarlo Stanton is back to his power ways and the team is ranked in the top 10 in all major offensive categories. The team is sixth in batting average and sixth in runs and they are also seventh and eighth in on base and slugging percentage. The pitching has been solid and the team now is right there with the Braves in the division.
The Rays and Marlins are having two very different seasons and one might say they switched places from last year. The Rays have been the darlings of the MLB over the past few years and now injuries and maybe some of their philosophy is catching up with them, as they have traded away some stars over the years. The team is also dealing with Wil Myers being injured and that has been tough.
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