Miami Marlins vs Tampa Bay Rays Betting Preview
The Miami Marlins will travel to Tropicana Field on Friday to begin a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Miami Marlins will be sending rookie right-hander Edward Cabrera to pitch as he is 0-2 with a 5.31 ERA in five career games.
He is coming off a losing effort against the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he went four innings and allowed three runs (zero earned) on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. The Tampa Bay Rays will counter with veteran reliever David Robertson used as the opener as he is coming off a perfect inning against the Toronto Blue Jays without a walk or strikeout.
The Miami Marlins are currently 64-88 and are looking towards the offseason, while the Tampa Bay Rays are 94-59 and looking to close in on the top seed in the American League for the playoffs. These teams are not very close to one another in terms of talent so let’s take a deeper dive into these franchises to determine the best way to bet here. If you are new to betting on baseball, I strongly recommend using this guide as an additional tool as well.
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Gone Fishing
The Miami Marlins have been arguably one of the worst offensive teams in the majors as they are currently 28th in the majors with a .676 OPS. They have not been able to score many runs this year as they are averaging 3.95 runs per game. With the inability to hit for much power, the Marlins bank on their speed as they are only trailing the Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres in stolen bases with 103 steals in 129 attempts.
First baseman Jesus Aguilar has been leading the charge offensively for the Marlins this season as he has a .788 OPS with 22 home runs and 93 RBI so far. If the Marlins can figure out how to score some early runs, it will really help them out here.
Raising the Game
The Tampa Bay Rays have been a good offensively team throughout 2021 as they are currently 10th in MLB with a .745 OPS so far. Tampa Bay has been one of the best offenses at plating runs as they are scoring 5.3 runs per game so far this year and could be a team any pitching staff does not want to face off against.
The Rays have been hitting very well inside of Tropicana Field as in 77 home games, and they are scoring 4.88 runs with a .740 OPS as a whole. Second baseman Brandon Lowe has been hitting very well overall this season as he has posted an .825 OPS with 34 home runs and 86 RBI while also stealing seven bases in eight attempts. If the Rays can scratch across a few runs, they will be in a great spot here.
Betting
The Miami Marlins are definitely built on the backs of their starting pitchers, and Edward Cabrera is going to struggle enough where he can get hit around a bit. Cabrera is 0-1 with a 5.87 ERA in two road starts this season, so he is not doing great. David Robertson is going to be used as an opener in this game, but southpaw Ryan Yarbrough is going to take the bulk of the innings here, and he has also been struggling, but I definitely trust the Rays bullpen over the Marlins.
The Marlins are struggling throughout their games played in Tropicana Field against their Florida brethren as Miami is 1-5 in their last six games in the Trop. The money line is a little too large, so; instead, we are going to be looking at the run line here. Bovada currently has it listed as Tampa Bay Rays -1.5 (-135) while it’s essentially the same at BetOnline at -134 for the same run line, but check out here for some great bonuses when you find the best odds.
