TV: FOX Sports Florida
TIME: Coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. ET
The Miami Marlins are having trouble at the plate, but the bats may not need to do much with Jose Fernandez taking the ball.
Fernandez goes for another impressive performance as the Marlins try to win a third straight game with him on the mound Saturday night against the San Francisco Giants.
Miami (5-10) has lost seven of its last nine games while averaging 2.9 runs and batting .203 with runners in scoring position. The Marlins had a .379 average in that scenario while scoring 5.0 runs per game during their first six.
They went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position in Friday's 8-1 loss to San Francisco (8-10). Miami's frustrations boiled over when manager Don Mattingly came out to argue with umpire Brian Gorman and was ejected in the top of the fourth.
"Just a little frustrated as much as anything," Mattingly said. "I almost think it's like any kind of close call or big situation, there's never a call that goes the Marlins' way."
Things are mostly going Fernandez's way over the last two games. He's yielded two runs with 14 strikeouts in 11 innings with the Marlins winning both games.
Fernandez (1-1, 3.78 ERA) is among baseball's leaders with 27 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings through three starts. The right-hander, however, needed 54 pitches his first two innings Monday before recovering to finish with nine strikeouts and limited the Nationals to one run and three hits in six innings of a 6-1 win Monday.
"He's just so emotional," Mattingly said of Fernandez's outburst after walking two and hitting another batter in the second inning. "He settles down, and he starts pitching different."
Fernandez struggled early in his only career meeting with the Giants (8-10) on July 2. He allowed two runs in the opening inning before settling down and yielding one over the next five of a 5-4 win.
That matchup, though, was at home, where Fernandez is 18-1 with a 1.61 ERA in 28 career starts. He is only 5-9 with a 3.70 ERA in 22 on the road.
San Francisco snapped a season-high five-game slide in the opener of this three-game set.
Sending Jake Peavy (0-1, 9.00) to the mound may be an issue. The veteran right-hander has failed to at least register an out in the sixth inning in each of his three starts.
He actually faced two batters in the sixth Monday, but was pulled and charged with four runs and seven hits in a 9-7 loss in 11 to Arizona. However, he helped himself with a single and a bases-loaded walk. He's 2 for 3 on the season.
"I take it serious to try to contribute on that side of the ball," Peavy told MLB's official website. "I understand what it's like to be out there as a pitcher, and if another pitcher can handle the bat, that's one more thing you have to worry about."
Peavy is facing the Marlins for the first time since tossing a six-hitter in a win with the Chicago White Sox in 2013.
He'll face Christian Yelich for the first time, and his .400 average ranks only behind Washington's Daniel Murphy (.411) in the majors. The left fielder had three doubles against San Francisco on Friday, and he's 8 for 16 over the past five games.
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