Ozuna, Suzuki Step It Up For Marlins
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - With Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich nursing injuries, Marcell Ozuna and Ichiro Suzuki have picked up the slack for the Miami Marlins, who open a three-game series against the host Atlanta Braves on Friday.
Ozuna leads the National League in hitting this month with a .426 average, while Suzuki has recorded 10 hits over his last five games to draw within 40 of 3,000 for his major-league career.
Miami, which won three of four against Tampa Bay thanks to a dominant 9-1 victory on Thursday, enters the weekend having captured seven of its last 12 games and will be eager to face the struggling Braves, who swept a three-game series in Miami from April 15-17.
Atlanta is 9-25 since that set and 12-34 overall on the season, falling for the seventh time in 10 games with Thursday's 6-2 loss to Milwaukee. The Braves have been abysmal at home, losing 20-of-22 contests at Turner Field this season. Tyler Flowers is batting .308 over his last 12 games and belted a two-run homer in the first inning Thursday.
PITCHING MATCHUP: Marlins Adam Conley (3-3, 4.15 ERA) vs. Braves Williams Perez (2-1, 3.86)
Conley's starts have alternated between outstanding and difficult since he fired 7 2/3 hitless innings in a victory at Milwaukee on April 29, as he surrendered 10 runs over 9 1/3 frames in two losses and just one over 11 1/3 innings in two victories. Conley's last start was his worst of the season, a setback against Washington on Sunday in which he yielded six runs on seven hits and seven walks. He is 1-0 with a 6.75 ERA in two career appearances (one start - versus Atlanta.
Perez rebounded from a rough outing at Pittsburgh on May 16 to defeat Philadelphia on Saturday, when he gave up only two hits with one walk and four strikeouts in 6 1/3 scoreless innings. He opened the month by surrendering just one run and two hits over eight frames in a victory over the Phillies before Pittsburgh touched him for six runs and nine hits in six innings. Perez settled for a no-decision against the Marlins on April 15 after allowing three runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 frames.
WALK-OFFS
1. Stanton (side) missed the final two games of the series against Tampa Bay and Yelich (back) has sat out five of the team's last six contests, but the latter is expected to play this weekend.
2. Atlanta 1B Freddie Freeman is 5-for-39 with runners in scoring position this season.
3. The Marlins placed Bryan Morris on the disabled list Thursday with a lumbar disc herniation and recalled fellow RHP Nick Wittgren from Triple-A New Orleans.
PREDICTION: Marlins 4, Braves 1
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