The Miami Marlins had their game with the Washington Nationals postponed on Saturday due to inclement weather.
The game will be made up as part of a split-doubleheader on May 14th in Washington, D.C. While teams prefer to avoid doubleheaders, this postponement could be a welcome one for Miami. In the first three games of the season, the Marlins have had to rely on their bullpen too often and it has been taxed.
With an off-day on Friday and now this postponement, Miami basically has a chance to reset its pen and head into the next week with fresh arms. The benefit could ultimately be seen in the series against the New York Mets that starts on Monday.
Saturday's starting pitcher Tom Koehler will simply go on Sunday now and everyone else will move back a day. Miami will now miss seeing Nationals' All-Star right-hander Max Scherzer which also could be a positive. Scherzer is one of the top arms in all of Major League Baseball and has been solid against Miami in limited innings.
Due to the relative ineffectiveness of Wei-Yin Chen and Jose Fernandez in their 2016 debuts, manager Don Mattingly used virtually every arm in the pen multiple times. Following those starts, Adam Conley was lost in his debut after only one inning due to a rain delay. With Conley unavailable to continue, David Phelps had to give Miami several innings to save an already exhausted pen.
The Marlins have several former starters in their pen which gives them options in long relief, but ultimately the starting rotation is going to need to stay in longer. Over the course of the 162-game season, Miami's pen would be hard-pressed to keep up this current pace.
Weather permitting, the Marlins and Nationals will wrap up the series on Sunday at 1:35 p.m with Koehler taking on Joe Ross.
