San Diego @ Florida preview
Sun Life Stadium
Last Meeting ( Apr 28, 2010 ) San Diego 6, Florida 4
Edwin Rodriguez is a .500 manager in the major leagues. He might not get a chance to improve on that record if Bobby Valentine enters the picture.
The Florida Marlins, with a muddled managerial picture, will open a three-game series against the San Diego Padres on Friday.
After firing Fredi Gonzalez earlier in the week, the Marlins brought up Rodriguez to fill in as interim manager while the team conducted a search for a permanent solution. Valentine, who has already been contacted by the team, looks like the name at the top of the list, and reports have him interviewing for the job on Friday.
Valentine, who most recently managed in Japan, has been working as a television analyst and has had his name come up for every managerial opening since his return to the United States. He most recently was linked to the Baltimore Orioles.
Rodriguez presided over a 7-5 win in his debut on Wednesday but suffered an 11-5 loss in Thursday’s finale against the Orioles, snapping Florida’s three-game winning streak. While two games aren’t enough to properly evaluate anything in baseball, it would appear that Rodriguez was never a serious candidate for the permanent job.
Gonzalez’s ouster was a surprise to most people around baseball, with the feeling being that Gonzalez was probably doing the best he could with what has consistently been one of the lowest payrolls in baseball.
But owner Jeffrey Loria doesn’t seem to believe that his miserly ways should prevent his team from contending. He was unhappy with the Marlins falling out of contention late last season and then hovering around .500 well into the 2010 campaign.
Well respected by everyone in the game except perhaps some of the players on his own team, Gonzalez became the center of a media circus earlier this season when he benched star Hanley Ramirez for a lack of hustle. Ramirez responded by suggesting that Gonzalez didn’t understand because he had never played in the major leagues.
The upheaval comes at a poor time in the schedule for Florida, which goes on to play the red-hot New York Mets after this three-game set against the National League West-leading Padres.
San Diego had its three-game winning streak snapped with a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday but still maintains a 2 ½-game lead in its division due to a pitching staff that leads the NL with a 3.07 team ERA.
Left-hander Clayton Richard gets the start today. The 26-year-old has not earned a win in any of his last five outings despite allowing two runs or less in three of those starts. Richard took the loss against the Baltimore Orioles last time out, allowing five runs – four earned – and eight hits in six innings.
The dud against Baltimore marked just the second time this season that Richard had surrendered more than three runs in a start.
The Marlins will counter with right-hander Chris Volstad. The 23-year-old sinkerballer is coming off his own poor outing, when he allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay last weekend.
He has struggled in two career starts against the Padres, going 1-1 while allowing seven runs and 10 hits in 8 2/3 frames.