Marlins Hope To Get Back On Track With Koehler On The Mound
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ATLANTA (CBSMiami/AP) – It's been a bit of a backwards start for the teams facing off at Turner Field this week.
The Atlanta Braves' impressive start can be largely attributed to superb pitching against the struggling Miami Marlins.
Trevor Cahill will try to continue that dominance against the Marlins as he looks to begin a bounce-back season Tuesday night.
Atlanta (6-1) has a 1.86 ERA, built primarily on its 1.25 mark in winning all four meetings with the Marlins (1-6).
Four pitchers held Miami to six hits Monday while Alberto Callaspo's and Nick Markakis' run-scoring hits in the fifth were enough for a 3-2 win in the opener of this three-game series at Turner Field.
The bullpen has been especially dominant for the surprising Braves, allowing two runs and nine hits with 29 strikeouts in 24 1-3 innings. The relievers have struck out 20 Marlins while yielding one run in 15 innings.
"When you get contributions from everybody on the roster, whether they start the game or not, it's going to make for a special team and a very fun summer," said center fielder Eric Young Jr., who had a pair of doubles Monday and scored on Markakis' single.
Cahill gets the ball for the first time since being acquired from Arizona on April 2.
The right-hander was 3-12 with a 5.61 ERA in 32 games - 17 starts - last year, but the 2010 All-Star yielded four runs with 10 strikeouts in 10 innings during the spring. That was enough for Atlanta to risk adding him to the rotation.
"We thought he was a good buy-low type of candidate," assistant general manager John Coppolella told MLB's official website. "He's still young and has good stuff. We saw him four different times this spring. We think there should be some regression to the mean, based on what he has done in the past."
Cahill has gone 2-0 with a 1.72 ERA in his last three starts against Miami, yielding two runs in 6 2-3 innings of a 3-2 win with the Diamondbacks in the most recent Aug. 15.
He'll face a Marlins team that's batting .211 with one homer and averaging 2.9 runs.
"We're going through a funk as a team, and we've got to dig deep and figure out a way to get something going," manager Mike Redmond said.
That's certainly true for Giancarlo Stanton, 3 for 23 after going 0 for 4 in the series opener. The slugger is 3 for 7 with a double and three strikeouts against Cahill.
Tom Koehler takes the mound against the Braves again. The right-hander reached the seventh against them Wednesday, but was pulled after allowing a two-run homer to A.J. Pierzynski while Miami mustered six singles in a 2-0 home defeat.
"He made one bad pitch," Redmond said. "But, man, he gave us a chance. He limited the Braves to two runs. If he does that over the course of the year, we're going to win a lot of those games."
That hasn't happened when Koehler has faced Atlanta. He's posted a 2.81 ERA in his last five starts against the Braves but is 0-2 in that stretch, having been backed by six total runs. The Marlins won one of those contests.
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