Game 42 Open Thread: Phillies @ Marlins

Look, I don't want to alarm anyone, and I don't want to make big assumptions, but I think we probably both dodged a bullet and missed a huge opportunity as Phillies fans. The bullet and the opportunity? Seeing Jose Fernandez pitch. The young phenom is, as you all know, out for a year plus after undergoing Tommy John Surgery, and as we're seeing Anthony DeSclafini pitch just his second major league game tonight, chances are good that we'd be seeing Fernandez instead of Tony The Sclafini tonight in Miami. That's a drag for those of us who love to watch good pitching, but probably good for a lineup who would likely hit Fernandez like the proverbial fork hits soup.

That said, given that DeSclafini aced the Dodgers his first time out, and given that the Phillies always seem to struggle against newly minted major league fringe arms, we might be in for a long night anyway. Still, Burnett v Fernandez would have been a more aesthetically pure experience, even if the Marlins' home wRC+ of 126 (second only to the Rockies) suggests that Burnett might also have a bad night. At least we can root for dingers and a football score thriller with Fernandez out of the lineup. Small victories in this world of terrible surgeries, my friends.