The Miami Marlins have won three games in a row, including the first two of their series against the Washington Nationals to move into second place in the NL East.
Miami has some great pitching despite a porous offense, and it has one of its young prospects on the mound on Thursday afternoon.
Eury Perez (0-1, 3.86 ERA) will make his second start of the season for Miami. He takes on Washington's veteran starter Trevor Williams (5-3, 4.23 ERA).
Does Miami pull off the sweep and continue to build on its playoff case in the National League?
Here are the latest odds for the matinee matchup on May 18:
Nationals vs. Marlins odds, run line and total
Nationals vs. Marlins prediction and pick
Perez was solid in his Major League debut, allowing just two runs and four hits across 4.2 innings, striking out seven. The Marlins lost that game, but Perez has a higher ceiling than Williams, who has allowed six earned runs in 6.2 innings over his last two starts.
Pitching is going to be key here, as both of these teams have struggled on offense. They are currently tied for 24th in MLB in OPS so far this season.
Both of these teams are also in the bottom 10 in the league in bullpen ERA, so it's going to come down to the starting pitching, and I'd prefer Perez and his electric stuff over Williams.
Williams has a Fielding Independent Pitching of 4.71 this season, showing that regression is coming, and it may have already started over his last two outings.
Give me the Marlins to sweep this series on Thursday.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
