After winning the National League Cy Young Award last season, Miami Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara is in search of an encore as he and the Marlins go on the road to face the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday.
Miami Marlins (-110, 7.5) vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Since the start of the 2022 season, Alcantara is 15-9 with a 2.26 ERA, but perhaps the most important start is Alcantara averaging nearly 7 1/3 innings per start.
The length Alcantara delivers mitigates what is an unreliable bullpen that was 22nd in ERA last season and enters with a 6.43 ERA, good for 28th in MLB.
The Phillies own one of the bullpens with an even worse ERA at 6.75 and send converted reliever Matt Strahm to the mound to start Monday.
The first start of the season went smoothly for Strahm, with four scoreless innings in a win against the New York Yankees last week, but Strahm last went more than four innings in an appearance on July 2, 2019.
While primarily coming out of the bullpen the past two seasons, Strahm posted a 4.38 ERA with 3.2 walks per nine innings between the 2021-22 seasons.
Last season, the Marlins scored the fewest runs per game of any team in the National League, and are still last in total runs scored in the National League with 27 thus far, but have room to improve with the offseason additions of Jean Segura from the Phillies and Luis Arreaz of the Minnesota Twins.
The team with the second-fewest runs scored though is the Phillies with Segura now in the opposing dugout coupled with Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper landing on the injured list to begin the season and Hoskins likely to miss the entire 2023 season.
Only the Washington Nationals have fewer home runs than the Phillies this season among National League teams and with Alcantara owning a career 2.66 ERA in eight road starts against the Phillies, he will help his cause for back-to-back Cy Young Awards with a win on Monday.
The Play: Marlins -110