Baseball | Thursday, March 30, 2023 9:10 AM

Miami Marlins vs New York Mets Best Bet: Opening Day of the 2023 Campaign

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US Sports Expert

Miami Marlins vs New York Mets Best Bet: Thursday, March 30th

It’s the opening day of the 2023 Major League Baseball campaign, and for the second straight year, we have our U.S. sports expert Ej Garr covering all of your baseball needs. Prepare yourself for another winning season of betting results because you have already seen what Ej can do time and time again! PLAY BALL!!

In this article:

Miami Marlins vs New York Mets Preview

March 30, 21:10 (UK time)

PLAY BALL!! Here we go again, and I’d like to thank everyone who made the effort to ensure that I would be back for a second campaign of baseball previews. I can rest on my laurels knowing that most of you took in a pretty penny following my best bets last season, and I am back to do it all over again!

Let’s start with a game that has me shocked when it comes to the odds being set when the Mets and Marlins square off at LoanDepot Park. What a pitching matchup we have in store for this game, as Sandy Alcantara and Max Scherzer are expected to get the opening-day nod.

I will admit that I rarely ever put a lot of stock in the pre-season results because coaches and players are just trying to stay healthy and look forward to when the stats count, and that happens today! I do have an issue with the Marlins’ Spring Training results as they stand out for so many reasons.

It was bad enough that Miami ended the 2022 campaign with only 69 wins, but at least the Nationals took up the space in the NL Eastern Division basement 10 games behind the Fish. That doesn’t change the facts, and those facts essentially led to what happened in the pre-season this year.

The Marlins simply stunk up the field preparing for the 2023 campaign through Grapefruit League action. The Fish won a total of 7 games and only scored 74 runs in 23 Spring Training outings, while no other team was held to under 100 runs in the pre-season.

As I said, I normally try to not judge Spring Training games too harshly because it is all just preparation, but I cannot even imagine the Mets losing to Miami to open the campaign, even if the opening series is on Florida’s home field.

These two teams met 6 times during the pre-season and guess how many games the Marlins won? (Crickets Chirping)

Hmm hmm, that many games! And last season, the 19-game series between division rivals earned the Mets 13 wins from the Marlins.

Brandon Nimmo signed a handsome contract with the Mets during the off-season, and he is expected to be in the opening-day lineup despite dealing with ankle and knee sprains. Nimmo was a constant at the top of the Mets’ batting order a season ago, and he hopes that he won’t end up missing any significant time to start the new campaign.

The Polar Bear might have more RBI than the entire Marlin batting order today, and that lack of run support is one of the main reasons why I can’t leave the Mets Moneyline off the board to open the season. The line setters are aware that this pitching matchup is affecting the odds for this game, but Scherzer has bats behind him that Alcantara simply doesn’t have. Sandy cannot win 2 – 1 games all season because pitching not to make a mistake can always lead to more pressure.

No starting pitcher wants to take the mound knowing that one pitch can change the entire dynamic when you have no run support to make up for any mistakes. Max Scherzer is probably the most intense dude in all of baseball, and he has got to be licking his chops going over the Marlins lineup in preparation for today’s game.