New York Mets vs Miami Marlins Prediction: A close contest expected

On Friday, Major League Baseball action will take place at Citi Field between the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets. This will be the third and final game of a series that began earlier this week. The New York Mets easily won the first game of the doubleheader that took place on Thursday. The nightcap was won by the Miami Marlins by a score of two runs to even the series at one game apiece.

The New York Mets played their first game of the day on Thursday. During the rout, Pete Alonso was responsible for four runs, four hits, two runs batted in, and a home run. In the seventh and final inning, Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets hit a pair of solo home runs, but other than that, there wasn't much action at the plate. On Friday, the New York Mets will send out David Peterson to the mound as their starting pitcher. In 2023, Peterson's overall record is 3-8, and he has a 5.37 ERA with 120 strikeouts in 104.0 innings pitched. In Peterson's last seven outings, he has gone winless while posting a 4.89 earned run average.

Following the cancellation of the first game of this set, which was supposed to take place on Wednesday, we played two games on Thursday. In the first game of the series, the Marlins were defeated 11-2 despite collecting nine hits and scoring twice. Jon Berti (two hits and two runs) and Jesus Sanchez both hit a home run to help Miami win game two of their series by a score of 4-2 on Sunday. In the series finale on Friday, the Miami Marlins will send Jesus Luzardo to the mound as their starting pitcher. Luzardo has made 31 starts so far this year and has a record of 10-9 with a 3.73 earned run average. Luzardo's overall record over his previous seven starts is 2-2, and he has a 3.82 earned run average.

In this matchup, I'm going to side with the Miami Marlins. However, Luzardo has to get off to a strong beginning. Luzardo had a bad outing on September 11 against Milwaukee, resulting in a defeat with 5.0 innings pitched, six earned runs, 10 hits, and four walks. However, Luzardo has a record of 1-0 with three earned runs allowed across 11.0 innings in his two subsequent starts. The Miami Marlins were able to even the series on Thursday night thanks to four runs scored on seven hits in the nightcap after their starting pitcher struggled in the first game of the day. I believe that the Miami Marlins will be able to rally the offense behind Luzardo if he is able to have a great outing.