The Miami Marlins come out of a Thursday off day still carrying a nine-game losing streak, with Ryan Gusto expected to start against German Marquez and the San Diego Padres on Friday. Miami has not formally announced a starter, but Gusto is the expected choice as the club tries to stop a slide that has stretched to two weeks without a win.
That is why Padres Vs Marlins is drawing attention now: Miami was 10 games above.500 before a three-game series to end the first half of the season, then dropped into this long skid. San Diego arrives three games under.500 and 4-6 in its last 10 games, so the opener is not a meeting of surging teams but of two clubs trying to steady themselves.
The pitching setup gives Miami a chance to make a clean break if Gusto can give it enough length. He has not thrown more than three innings since late June, and if he starts Friday it will likely be as part of a bullpen game. Still, he has worked to a 3.86 ERA in July, which is at least enough to give Miami a baseline to lean on while the lineup searches for a timely answer.
Marquez brings a different kind of uncertainty for San Diego. He has a 5.24 ERA over 10 games this season, missed two months with forearm nerve inflammation, and has settled into a 4.20 ERA while averaging four innings a game over his last three starts. That matters because San Diego was fresh off nearly getting swept in a four-game set in Atlanta, and its rotation enters Friday with the 27th-worst starting pitcher ERA at 4.69.
The back end of the series also gives Miami a path, even if the club has not earned much benefit from favorable matchups lately. It gets another left-handed test on Saturday against JP Sears, who owns a 4.38 ERA through just five big league starts, before Walker Buehler takes the ball for San Diego on Sunday. The problem for Miami is simple: good pitching slots only matter if the Marlins can stop turning them into another day in the streak.
