Saturday MLB Baseball Picks: Marlins vs Phillies
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MLB Betting – Marlins vs Phillies Preview & Pick
Date: Saturday, April 16, 2011
Venue: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast: FSPL, CSN
Florida Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies Betting Lines from Betus.com
Money Line: Phili -200
Over/Under: 8.5
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Florida Marlins (6-5 through April 13)
Anibal Sanchez (0-1, 6.97)
Sharing the National League East with major contenders like the Phillies and Braves, the Florida Marlins can’t waste any opportunity to gain ground on the Phillies while they’re not at full strength. 
But do the Marlins have the horses to do so? Offensively, no one is stepping up aside from youngster Logan Morrison. Superstar Hanley Ramirez has been a disaster, making errors galore, injuring his leg and batting .194 with no homers early on.
Saturday’s probable starter, Anibal Sanchez, hasn’t pulled his weight either. Over two starts and 10.1 innings pitched so far this season, he’s winless and has allowed eight earned runs and 20 hits.
Philadelphia Phillies (8-3 through April 13)
Cole Hamels (1-1, 5.59)
After assembling the “Phantastic Four” rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels for the 2011 season, the Philadelphia Phillies emerged as the consensus World Series favorite. They also emerged as the team many people love to hate, in the same vein of the NBA’s Miami Heat.
But even the Phillies’ biggest critics have to give them credit for the 8-3 start. They’re overcoming some adversity; Chase Utley and Brad Lidge are injured and Ryan Howard’s wrist is banged up, too.
What’s with Cole Hamels and slow starts? He took a beating in his first start of 2011, allowing six earned runs in 2.2 innings. He’s 8-9 with a 4.22 ERA in April. However, in his second outing of the season, he took a step toward bucking the trend, tossing seven scoreless frames with eight strikeouts against the Braves.
MLB Trends:
Under is 10-1 in FLA last 11 road games.
Under is 6-1-1 in FLA last 8 Fri. games.
Under is 20-8 in FLA last 28 on grass.
Over is 8-2-1 in PHI last 11 overall.
Over is 8-2-1 in PHI last 11 on grass.
PHI are 19-7 in their last 26 Fri. games.
The pick:
Even in Philadelphia, this pick is no slam-dunk. In 15 career starts against the Marlins, Hamels is 4-7 with a 3.73 ERA and 14 homers allowed in just 94 innings. Don’t sleep on Chris Coghlan; the former NL Rookie of the Year bats .462 with two homers in 13 at-bats against Hamels. Then again, Sanchez struggles mightily against the Phillies historically, going 3-7 with a 5.93 ERA.
The stars have aligned for a slugfest. Even if Howard can’t play, the Phillies are swinging the bats better than the Marlins at this point in the season, so I think they can slip by.
Marlins vs Phillies prediction: Phillies 7, Marlins 5
