MLB Pick: Marlins, Rockies stay ‘under’

Nathan Eovaldi, now with the Marlins, has allowed two earned runs or less in four of his last five starts while Tyler Chatwood has allowed a grand total of two earned runs in three starts for Colorado. Go ‘under’ in the altitude on Saturday.

Expect a relatively low scoring game in the altitude on Saturday night when Nathan Eovaldi and the Miami Marlins (54-66 overall, 25-35 away) take on Tyler Chatwood and the Colorado Rockies (45-72 overall, 25-38 home) as the teams play the third game of a four-game weekend series from Coors Field in Denver, CO at 8:10 ET.

The posted total at 5 Dimes is 11 for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -110.

Neither of these teams are going anywhere this season as both are in last place, Miami in the National League East while 20½ games behind the Washington Nationals and Colorado in the National League West while 19 games behind the San Francisco Giants. However, both recent additions to the starting rotations that are going tonight have performed well for their new teams.

The Marlins have lost three of their last five games, as Miami just lost two out of three games vs. the Philadelphia Phillies to wrap up a home stand and then lost the series opener 5-3 here on Thursday before winning 6-5 last night. The Marlins were sellers at the trading deadline as usual and Eovaldi came over from the Dodgers as past of the Hanley Ramirez deal.

Eovaldi’s overall numbers this year do not scream out with excitement, as he is 3-8 with a 4.28 ERA, and even his numbers with Miami look ugly on the surface at 2-2 in four starts with a 4.67 ERA and a dreadful 2.13 WHIP, but those numbers are skewed by one rough outing at Atlanta where he allowed six earned runs and eight hits in only two innings.

The fact is that he pitched very well in his other three starts with the Marlins, and if we include his final start with the Dodgers, Eovaldi has now allowed two earned runs or less in four of his last five starts, and he has also allowed three runs or less in six of his last seven starts.

Eovaldi also became accustomed to pitching in the altitude while visiting here with Los Angeles, and he pitched reasonably well in his last start at Coors, allowing three runs with only two of them earned on five hits in 5.2 innings back in June.

Despite being in last place, the Rockies actually had a four-game winning streak snapped by losing last night, a streak that included a fine pitching performance by Chatwood vs. the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday where he allowed one earned run on four hits in six innings.

In fact, Chatwood has sparkled in all three of his starts in a Colorado uniform, allowing a grand total of two earned runs and just nine hits in 14.1 innings. He now gets a chance to succeed again vs. a Marlins’ team that has clearly thrown in the towel for this year, as the Fish were shut out in three straight games before winning the last game off  their home stand Wednesday, and they are batting just .219 as a team overall in the last 10 games.

Chatwood is another pitcher that has proven himself at Coors Field, posting an acceptable 3.86 ERA in six appearances here, so go ‘under’ the total in Denver on Saturday.