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Marlins-Phillies Preview

May 17, 2016 - 4:36 AM Miami Marlins starter Wei-Yin Chen bounced back from his sub-par start against the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this month, but Vince Velasquez is still trying to find his footing since the same game.

While Chen hopes to continue building to help the visiting Marlins to their fourth straight win on Tuesday night, Velasquez looks to regain his early season form for the Phillies.

Philadelphia (22-17) took two of three from Miami (21-17) from May 6-8, but the Marlins got home runs from Justin Bour and Marcell Ozuna for a 5-3 win in Monday's series opener.

Ozuna extended his hitting streak to 16 games, tying his career high set in 2013. His second-inning solo home run was his fifth during that stretch, in which he has hit .415 with 11 RBIs.

''I got a good pitch to hit and I got it,'' Ozuna said. ''I'm thinking make good contact, hit the ball hard.''

Chen (3-1, 4.40 ERA) rebounded from a mediocre start against the Phillies on May 6 with one of his best outings of the season. After allowing four runs in five innings in a 6-4 win over Philadelphia, the left-hander held Milwaukee to six hits and two runs in 6 1/3 of Wednesday's 3-2 victory.

The most surprising statistic was the 12 strikeouts Chen stacked up, the second time in his career he has reached double figures.

Maikel Franco's solo home run was one of 11 hits Chen allowed earlier this month against the Phillies. The southpaw's only other start against them was an eight-inning, four-hit effort in a 4-0 win on June 15 while with Baltimore.

Tyler Goeddel and Odubel Herrera each had three hits in Monday's opener, but the rest of the Phillies lineup managed just four singles. Goeddel had the first three-hit game of his career and is 7 for 14 in his past four.

"The more playing time he gets, the better he looks," manager Pete Mackanin told MLB's official website. "Originally, he didn't really have hardly any good at-bats, but I decided to play him a bit more, because I knew he had to be a better hitter than he showed early."

After opening the season by allowing five earned runs through his first five starts, Velasquez (4-1, 2.70) has surrendered eight in his last two. Half of those came from a six-inning outing opposite Chen earlier this month in which he gave up a season-high seven hits, including a two-run homer to Christian Yelich.

The 23-year-old right-hander followed with another sub-par performance, surrendering five hits and four runs in six-plus innings of Thursday's 7-4 win at Atlanta.

Velasquez tossed six scoreless innings but fell apart in the seventh, giving up four runs without recording an out.

"I just started slipping," Velasquez told MLB's official website.

He struck out 25 batters in his first two outings but has just 24 his last five starts combined.

Velasquez could be throwing to catcher Cameron Rupp, who is expected to return after missing the last two games with a left ankle injury. Rupp suffered the injury from a collision with Cincinnati's Eugenio Suarez during Saturday's 4-3 win.