Texas @ Florida preview
Sun Life Stadium
Last Meeting ( Apr 1, 2006 ) Florida 4, Texas 6
The Texas Rangers haven’t been to South Beach in five years, but they do head into a three-game series against the Florida Marlins with five wins in their past six games.
The Rangers send left-hander C.J. Wilson to the mound and would like for him to build off his last start. It won’t be easy, however, as the Marlins will go with standout right-hander Josh Johnson.
In his last start against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday, Wilson went seven innings, allowing two runs and four hits to pick up his fifth win of the season.
Despite that solid outing, Wilson is still 2-2 with a 7.07 ERA in his last five starts after beginning the season with seven consecutive quality starts.
Wilson has two career appearances against the Marlins, both coming in 2005 when he was in the bullpen. He pitched a total of 2/3 of an inning combined, allowing no runs and one hit.
But, on an interesting note, Wilson will most likely have the chance to take his first major league swings at the plate. He was a standout outfielder for Loyola Marymount, tying for the team lead with 27 RBIs in 2001.
Offensively, all Texas fans will be focused on Rangers third baseman Michael Young, who is on an eight-game hitting streak. More importantly, Young is one hit shy of tying the franchise record for most career hits. Ivan Rodriguez has the record with 1,747.
Outside of Young, Josh Hamilton is on a 10-game hitting streak and has home runs in four of the past five games. Vladimir Guerrero is on an 11-game hitting streak and Julio Borbon has hit .474 over the last 11 games.
However, since the game is in Miami, most of the crowd will be there to witness the home debut of Marlins highly touted rookie outfielder Mike Stanton.
In his first five major league games, Stanton has gone 7-for-19 with a double and a triple. Stanton was on a tear at the Double-A level before his promotion, hitting 21 home runs in 52 games.
On the mound, Johnson has put up stellar numbers and will try to continue that the rest of the season.
In his last start against the Philadelphia Phillies, Johnson threw eight scoreless innings and outpitched Roy Halladay to lead the Marlins to a 2-0 victory.
In his past six starts, Johnson has gone 4-1 with a 0.43 ERA - his only loss coming when Halladay recorded the 20th perfect game in major-league history on May 29.