Today’s Lineups

DIAMONDBACKS	MARLINS
Ketel Marte – 2B	Liam Hicks – DH
Corbin Carroll – RF	Otto Lopez – SS
Gabriel Moreno – C	Kyle Stowers – LF
Nolan Arenado – 3B	Xavier Edwards – 2B
Pavin Smith – DH	Leo Jimenez – 3B
Geraldo Perdomo – SS	Owen Caissie – RF
Ryan Waldschmidt – CF	Jakob Marsee – CF
LuJames Groover – 1B	Joe Mack – C
Tommy Troy – LF	Connor Norby – 1B

Zac Gallen – RHP	Max Meyer – RHP

Back onto the East coast go the Diamondbacks, starting in Miami for a road-trip which will see them come back to Phoenix by way of Cincinnati. While the Marlins are below the D-backs in the standings, it’s the result of a rather unusual split in the fishes’ record. They are actually better against teams at or above .500, than against opponents with losing records. Miami have gone 19-19 for the former, but only 12-16 against the latter. They have taken series from the Dodgers – on the road, no less – and the Cardinals, and split six games with their Florida siblings, the AL East leading Rays. But they were swept by Detroit, and lost to both Minnesota and Baltimore.

I took a look at the overall standings. Unsurprisingly, most teams do better against weaker opponents. The average win percentage is 124 points better against teams below .500 (.438 vs. 561 – and before you ask, rounding). The Marlins are 71 points worse. The only team with a bigger gap in that direction are the Rangers: they are 19-14 against winning teams, but 14-19 facing losing ones, a whopping 170-point reverse split over what’d be expected. And the team with the largest split on the other side? Well, that would be your Arizona Diamondbacks.

Right now, the D-backs are 11-23 versus opponents at or above .500. That’s exactly the same record as the woeful Angels, who are dead-last in the AL West, and only three teams have a worse win percentage. But against losing teams? 23-8, the best record in the majors. All told, that’s a massive split of 418 points: .324 vs .742. With the Marlins guaranteed to be below .500 for the entire duration of the series, we’re hoping that’s trend which will continue – on our side of the ball at least. If the Marlins want to cool off against winning teams through Thursday, that would be very much appreciated.