Since his call up to the big leagues, Miami Marlins starter Eury Perez has been the league’s best starter from an ERA perspective, but faces his toughest test to date on Saturday, a road start against the Atlanta Braves.
Miami Marlins vs. Atlanta Braves (-170, 9)
Perez has posted a 1.34 ERA across his nine starts, surrendering a total of seven earned runs across all of his starts while getting 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
Somehow in his last six starts, Perez has been far more dominant with just one run allowed in this span while posting a strikeout to walk ratio of seven in the month of June.
The Marlins have needed every bit of this dominance as in this six start stretch, Perez has received two runs or fewer of support in four starts.
Overall, the Marlins are 25th in the league in runs per game, due in large part to a lack of power with the team 23rd in home runs per at-bat entering the series and while Jorge Soler entered Friday with 21 home runs, nobody else on the roster had more than 10.
Braves starter Charlie Morton will look to duplicate what he did in his first start against the Marlins this season, when he allowed one run in seven innings on April 25.
For the season as a whole, Morton has a 3.81 ERA with 10.6 strikeouts and one hone run allowed per nine innings with three earned runs or fewer allowed in five of his last six starts.
With the Braves backing up Morton with a bullpen that ranks eighth in the league in ERA, Saturday’s matchup between the top two teams in the National League Wast sets up for a pitchers duel.
The Play: Marlins vs. Braves Under 9
