The Marlins and Rockies finish a weekday series at Coors Field on the heels of a massive Miami win on Wednesday night, 10-2, to erase two losses to start the four game set.
The Fish now send out promising right hander Braxton Garrett to even this series at two against lefty Kyle Freeland. Both of these teams are in a rebuild, but would love to stay out of the basement of the National League with a Thursday win.
How should we bet on this afternoon matchup? Here are the odds and our best bet:
Marlins vs. Rockies odds, run line and total
Marlins vs. Rockies prediction and pick
Garrett's numbers look great this season if you look past the outlier 11 earned run outing on May 3rd. He has made nine starts this season and outside of the aforementioned 11 earned runs, he has allowed more than two earned runs just one other time.
He'll face a Rockies team that is 29th in wRC+, which quantifies quality of run scoring chances, so this should be a strong matchup for Garrett. He doesn't walk many batters, less than two per nine innings, and does a good job of avoiding blowup innings with his ability to generate swing and misses.
On the other side, it's been a decent year for Freeland of the Rockies, but his inability to strikeout batters is going to be an issue on Thursday as the Marlins offense is 11th in batting average this season. If Freeland can't generate swings and misses, Miami will be better suited to get the ball in play and push ahead on the scoreboard.
The Marlins offense has come along nicely this season and I fancy Garrett's chances of putting together a quality start, I'll side with the Marlins to get it done on the road and get a series split.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
