Two lefties face off in a day game at Wrigley Field in Maholm vs. Buehrle. Both pitchers and hitters are familiar with each other with active line ups having 124 AB vs. Maholm and 148 vs. Buehrle. Only the Marlins have a .298 average while the Cubs have a .182 average. The Cubs are also 28th in OPS on the season vs. LHP with a .636. The Marlins are not much better, but they hit lefties much better than RHP and the addition of Carlos Lee has helped even more as they are 18th with a .707 OPS. While Maholm has pitched well heâs been facing some lousy teams and will have a hard time against the Marlins who are scoring +.91 runs per 9 vs. LHP vs. what the Cubs do vs. LHP. Maholm also has a 4.44 Day ERA over his last 3 years with a 5.04 ERA during July. Heâs only striking out 5.99 guys per 9 and 2.58 BB/9 for a 4.31 XFIP.
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Buehrle is just a better pitcher right now with only 1.97 K/9, and a 2.25 ERA day this year and heâs got a 1.65 ERA over his last 5 starts. July has been his favorite month because over the last 3 years heâs 9-3 with a 2.99 ERA. The marlins have been decent during day games 16-16 with a 3.42 ERA ranked 8th while the Cubs are 19th with a 3.89 ERA and are 21-25. Marlins also have better hitting statistics during the day with a .709 OPS ranked 19th, Cubs .663 ranked 25th.
