Thursday’s Miami-SF Lineups and Pre-Gamer

Four games against the 22-49 Marlins (a 31.0 win percentage) should seem like at least a guaranteed series split, but you know what they say about baseball and the predictability of it. Miami was only able to take one from Arizona in three games but is 5-5 in their last ten. Needless to say, with the Giants only 1.5 games back and still playing with some players out, just staying in the race will give this team plenty of confidence when all the boys are back. The Marlins will be throwing out this lineup tonight:

Jun. 19, 2013; Phoenix, AZ, USA: Miami Marlins outfielder

against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Plenty of names that sound familiar early in the lineup, but then you get to the back end, and these aren’t household names on the West Coast. I count three lefties in that lineup, and the fewer, the better for Giants starting pitcher Chad Gaudin. His splits are pretty well pronounced.

Starting Pitcher Tom Koehler does have some velocity behind him, with his four-seamer coming in around 94 and a curve around 82. He’ll also toss in a changeup and cutter that’ll come in in the mid-, to high-80’s respectively. In six of his last seven starts, he has seen six hits go on his record, and his last start was his first that went less than five innings.

The Champs will be throwing these guys out there against Koehler and the Fish:

Brandon Crawford still not back in the lineup, so Joaquin Arias will still cover short, and Nick Noonan faces the righty. Juan Perez will be out there in center, and you wonder how many teams need him to introduce himself to them on defense before they stop running on him as much as they have. An update on Crawford:

Well, this at very least that makes me feel better about Crawford’s chances of starting in this series.  Some sad news for starting pitcher Barry Zito:

Condolences here from everyone at Around the Foghorn to Barry and his family.  Some “coming back into the lineup” news and both tweets come out of San Jose:

So if you’re at the game, watching how Angel Pagan is doing will definitely be something to monitor. In prospect news:

Kyle Crick was the consensus #1 prospect in the Giants system coming into this season. The San Jose Giants team doesn’t necessarily need him to win, as they’ve already clinched a postseason spot with their first-half title, but you can never have too much pitching, especially good pitching.

Back to the big club (no, that wasn’t a fat joke):

Well that oughta please a lot of people concerned about his weight. Oh, and he’s coming back to play, that’s cool, too. Pablo is not eligible to play in the bigs until Monday.

Game time is 7:15PM PST.