• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Marlins-Rays Preview

Jun 12, 2010 - 4:57 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Florida (29-31) at Tampa Bay (39-21), 7:10 p.m. EDT

The Florida Marlins have delivered a handful of offensive outbursts this season but haven't generated much momentum from those performances.

With a red-hot Chris Coghlan playing close to home, the Marlins will try to begin changing that Saturday night by clinching their first series win over the Tampa Bay Rays in three years.

Gaby Sanchez homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs to help Florida to a 14-9 victory in Friday night's series opener. Coghlan also did his part, scoring four runs and going 4 for 4 to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.

"It's definitely nice," Sanchez said. "But today's over and now we've got to work for tomorrow and hopefully keep it rolling."

Friday marked the sixth time this season the Marlins (30-31) have scored 10 or more runs, and the combined 70 runs from those games have accounted for nearly a quarter of the team's output in 2010.

Florida has averaged 4.3 runs in games following its double-digit performances, splitting those six contests. It hasn't recorded consecutive wins following a 10-run performance all season.

A resurgent Coghlan, who lives in nearby Tarpon Springs, Fla., could help change that this time. After hitting .184 through his first 26 games this season, the 2009 NL rookie of the year has batted .352 since then and .511 (24 for 47) with 13 runs scored during his streak.

Coghlan and his teammates will face Matt Garza (6-4, 3.31 ERA) as they try to record their first series win since sweeping three games at Tropicana Field from May 18-20, 2007.

Garza will try to help the AL-best Rays (39-22) bounce back with their 13th win in 16 tries over their in-state rivals. The right-hander posted a 1.13 ERA while winning both his previous starts against the Marlins - both in 2008.

Garza, though, has cooled off since reaching five wins faster than another Tampa Bay pitcher on May 5, going 1-3 with a 4.66 ERA. However, he did enough to snap a three-game slide Sunday at Texas, allowing four runs over 5 2-3 innings of a 9-5 victory.

He could earn another win if Carlos Pena can continue his power surge. The Rays first baseman hit his sixth home run in five games in Friday's loss and had a three-run homer in his only official at-bat against Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco (5-4, 4.60) during last season's 15-2 rout in Miami.

After winning his first two matchups against the Rays, Nolasco was tagged for eight runs and eight hits in two innings of that defeat. The right-hander also gave up eight runs May 21 against the Chicago White Sox, but has rebounded to allow three runs in each of his last three starts.

Nolasco left Sunday's game against the New York Mets with a four-run lead and one out in the sixth inning, but the Florida bullpen struggled in the 7-6 loss.

Allowing eight hits and a season high-tying three walks didn't help Nolasco's cause, as he piled up 82 pitches before being pulled.

"(Nolasco) just left pitches over the plate. We've seen him better," manager Fredi Gonzalez told the team's official website. "It's a tough decision by the manager to pull one of your better starters."