Henderson Alvarez Is On A Roll
Coming off two consecutive starts without allowing a single run, Henderson Alvarez went into Wednesday night's matchup against the Mets on the hottest stretch of his short career with the Marlins. Alvarez kept that momentum through the majority of tonight's game with a controversial triple by Eric Young, Jr. being the only negative mark on an otherwise positive outing. An uncommon occurance throughout Alvarez's current run with Miami has been his continued ability to keep the ball inside the park which was a concern while he was with Toronto (1.39 HR/9 during 2012). The main reason for that is because of Alvarez's strange ability to force some of the more powerful hitters in the game into soft and routine ground-outs.
One of the only reasons for Alvarez's continued success in the 2013 season would be the ability to learn the weaknesses of the opposing hitters and bring that to the mound. The 2/1 ratio between his K/9 rate (4.70) and BB/9 (2.35) should make Alvarez into mediocre-below average starting pitcher but he still continues to be relatively solid because of the aforementioned skill-set.
New Prospects Continue To Flourish
The new faces of the Miami Marlins continue to make waves as Jake Marisnick launched his first major league career home run as he took a two-seam fastball by Jenrry Mejia into the left field bleachers. Marisnick's solo shot and Christian Yelich's 2 for 4 outing counting for half of the team's six overall hits. One of the more impressing scenes is the pure poise that the 21 year old Yelich has shown in his short time with the big league club which has only been outmatched by Jose Fernandez.
Continued Play of Miami's Bullpen
With the Trade Deadline now in the rearview mirror, the current iteration of the Marlins bullpen should be here to stay minus any possible minor league or waiver deal. Despite the team's continued struggles over the season, Miami's bullpen has been one of the brighter spots on an otherwise dreary season. That continued solid performance was put to the back-burner because of Alvarez's sturdy 7.1 IP. In their limited amount of time on the mound, the affable Chad Qualls and Mike Dunn held onto a 3-2 lead against the heart of New York's lineup.
After securing a close victory against New York on Wednesday night, Miami will have their backs against the walls on Thursday as Cy Young candidate Matt Harvey will battle Tom Koehler. The odds will be against Miami as they look to even up the series before inviting the AL Central leading Indians in for the weekend series.
Source: FanGraphs