MIAMI – The Miami Marlins and New York Mets will kick off their 2023 seasons on Thursday at loanDepot Park.
The reigning unanimous Cy Young Award winner, Sandy Alcantara will take the mound for the Marlins looking to duplicate the best statistical season oh his young career.
Alcantara was expected to take the mound against Max Scherzer, who posted a 2.29 ERA with 173 strikeouts, in 145.1 innings of work last season.
However, the Mets announced Verlander was placed on IL Thursday afternoon with a low-grade teres major strain.
The Mets have not announced who will replace Verlander as the Opening Day starter.
Local 10 News spoke with a group of Mets fans that call themselves the “Seven Line Army” who said there’s “nothing better” than Opening Day in Miami.
“Opening Day is a special time of year and it’s really like a national holiday, in my opinion. Everybody starts off fresh and everyone has aspirations for a championship,” said Richard Rozales, a member of the Seven Line Army.
Skip Schumaker will also be making his debut as the Marlins manager.
He was named the 16th manager in Marlins history in October and will succeed Don Mattingly, who was the club’s longest-tenured and winningest skipper.
Schumaker told Local 10 News back in November that he’s ready to bring a winning culture to the Marlins organization.
“As a coach, how we get to the postseason is what I’m concerned about,” said Schumaker. “Not just one year, but year after year after year.”
Under Schumaker, the Marlins will look to make their first postseason appearance since 2020.
Baseball is officially back in South Florida and the opening pitch is set for 4:10 p.m.
The Marlins announced their Opening Day starting lineup Thursday morning, which you can view in the tweet below.