Finish the fish — Marlins @ Phillies Wild Card Game 2 Preview

Tuesday night, the Phillies kicked off their postseason run with a 4-1 victory over the Miami Marlins in front of 45,662 relentless fans at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies offense produced, Zack Wheeler dominated, and the bullpen soared.

Wednesday night at 8:08 p.m., the Phils look to fillet the fish and sweep out the Marlins in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card series.

READ MORE: Wheeler Dominates as Phillies Route Marlins in Game One

Here is the Phillies’ starting lineup for Game 2:

1. Kyle Schwarber DH
2. Trea Turner SS
3. Alec Bohm 3B
4. Bryce Harper 1B
5. J.T. Realmuto C
6. Nick Castellanos RF
7. Bryson Stott 2B
8. Cristian Pache LF
9. Johan Rojas CF

The Phillies are running it back with the same lineup in Game 2. All nine Phillies starters had a base hit Tuesday night, recording a total of 11.

Bohm started the scoring in Game 1 with an RBI double down the left-field line. An inning later, Stott and Pache added insurance, each recording an RBI single. Nick Castellanos ended the scoring as he cushioned the Phils’ lead with his RBI double, scoring Harper from first base.

Tuesday night when Miami starter Jesus Luzardo was taken out of the game, Phillies manager Rob Thomson inserted Brandon Marsh for Pache as a right-hander entered the game. Expect that to be the same story in Game 2.

The Phillies take on another left-hander in Braxton Garret. Garrett will not overpower opposing batters with velocity, instead, he locates pitches and changes speeds. The 26-year-old Garrett succeeded as the Marlins’ most consistent starter in the regular season, maintaining opponents to one earned or fewer in 16 starts this season. Garrett consistently kept the Marlins in games, as displayed by the club’s 21-10 record in his starts. The Marlins won both of his starts against the Phillies, as he gave up three runs across five innings in each of them. And unlike Luzardo, he is very efficient on the road, as his batting average against in opposing stadiums was .224.

Here is the Marlins’ starting lineup for Game 2:

1. Luis Arraez 2B
2. Jorge Soler DH
3. Josh Bell 1B
4. Jazz Chisholm Jr. CF
5. Jake Burger 3B
6. Bryan De La Cruz LF
7. Jesus Sanchez RF
8. Jon Berti SS
9. Jacob Stallings C

The Marlins also are sending out the same lineup in Game 2.

After getting dominated by Wheeler last night, the Marlins will have to deal with Aaron Nola.

Nola is very familiar with the Marlins. He has made 23 starts against Miami in his career with a lifetime record of 5-10 with an ERA of 3.58. He surprisingly has better numbers in Miami (2.69 ERA) as opposed to home at Citizens Bank Park (3.68 ERA) where he will face them Wednesday night. However, Nola has really struggled against Miami in 2023 with an 0-2, allowing 12 earned runs in 16 innings (6.75 ERA) across three starts.

Last postseason, Nola also started Game 2 of the Wild Card series in St. Louis and dominated lifting the Phillies to a sweep of the Cardinals. Nola did not allow an earned run over his first 12 2/3 innings in wins over the Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. He was hit around in the NLCS in San Diego against the Padres and twice in the World Series against the Houston Astros. He seemed to be out of gas at the tail end as he achieved 231 combined innings between the regular season and playoffs, about 20 more than he had ever thrown in his career.

Nola and Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham made adjustments before his starts two starts ago against the Braves, and he has been excellent ever since. Nola has been very inconsistent all year but ended the regular season on a very high note. In his last two starts versus the Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates in the postseason clincher, he added up 12.2 innings allowing 10 hits, three earned runs, no walks, and 16 strikeouts.

Nola is heading into the postseason hot and looks to stay hot in Game 2, which may send the Phils into the National League Divisional Series.

Make sure to join us for the SeatGeek Phillies Postseason pregame show tonight at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube, Facebook, and X, formerly known as Twitter.