OC Dooley
2 Units Braves / Marlins Over
We have a pair of baseball squads taking the field this evening in the midst of horrendous losing streaks and the front offices of both teams have already taken action. While Oakland has fired their manager, Florida last night terminated their hitting coach in favor of ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez. Since he is the son of former major league star Tony Perez who currently is employed as a Marlins special advisor, the hiring would seem to make sense. While Florida has yet to crack the win column this month, the offense has been held to a grand total of just 4 runs in the past three outings combined. Last night the Florida offense was held to ZERO hits going into the sixth inning as they made Derek Lowe look like an All Star hurler. Back on Tuesday the Marlins dropped a 1-0 decision to the offensively challenged Braves as the game winning hit was by the same Alex Gonzalez who had gone almost an entire month without an RBI. Speaking of former Marlins the worst 2011 starting position player statistically is Dan Uggla (.170 batting average) who has struggled in an Atlanta uniform. With tonight being the final game of the series in Miami, one would think that the former power hitter would bust loose for just one game. With the struggles of both offenses it is easy to see why we have a deflated posted total this evening especially since Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens (1.75 ERA) has been almost unhittable now that he is completely healthy. But the fact of the matter is that Jurrjens gave up a season HIGH 4 runs last time on the mound and tonight is facing an offense that just received a big wake up call with the firing of their hitting instructor. Even before Eduardo Perez was hired last night, Florida slugger Mike Stanton came off the bench to drive in a pair of ninth inning runs. Stanton was not in the starting lineup last night due to a horrid 1-for-14 slump at the plate, but the rest appeared to help matters. In the past three years when the offense has been held to “three or less” runs on the scoreboard, Florida has gone 17-6 OVER/HOME