(Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

Two teams that have ridden strong pitching to recent success will meet Friday night when the Miami Marlins open a three-game road series against the San Francisco Giants.

Right-handers Sandy Alcantara (2-2, 3.06 ERA) of the Marlins and Adrian Houser (0-2, 5.40) of the Giants will kick off a series pairing a Miami team that's won three of its past four games and a San Francisco club that's prevailed in five of seven.

The Marlins used Thursday as a travel day following a home series win over the St. Louis Cardinals. With starters Max Meyer and Janson Junk allowing just four hits and two runs over 10 1/3 innings, Miami took the book-end games of the three-game set 5-3 and 4-1.

Junk was pitching so well that after Wednesday's game, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough had to defend his decision to send in a reliever to start the sixth inning. McCullough said the available relievers provided beneficial matchups for Miami.

'As good as Janson was pitching,' McCullough said, 'our best path today to nail down a win was to go that route.'

After a brilliant start to the season in which he allowed a total of just two earned runs and 10 hits over 24 1/3 innings in three starts, Alcantara has fallen victim to minimal support in his past two outings, during which his teammates have given him just two runs in each, both losses.

He's never won at San Francisco, going 0-3 in five appearances, four as a starter. For his career, the 30-year-old is 1-3 with a 2.95 ERA against the Giants over eight games (seven starts).

The Marlins hope a healthy Esteury Ruiz can help ignite their offense. He is expected to make his season debut in San Francisco after having suffered a strained left oblique late in spring training.

A fifth-year major-leaguer, Ruiz enjoyed his best season across the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, when he stole 67 bases and hit .254 for the Athletics in 2023.

Acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers for prospect Adriano Marrero in December, Ruiz will be asked to tap into his entire arsenal.

He had a home run, a single, a walk and two runs in his final rehab outing at Triple-A Jacksonville on Wednesday.

To make room on the roster for Ruiz, the Marlins designated outfielder Austin Slater for assignment. He spent the first seven-plus seasons of his career in San Francisco, where he was a fan favorite. In 593 games with the Giants, he hit .254, slugged 39 home runs and stole 47 bases.

He hadn't homered in 12 games for the Marlins this season and was hitting just .174 in his first season with them.The Giants won two of three games against the Dodgers but lost 3-0 on Thursday. Landen Roupp and Tyler Mahle pitched San Francisco to 3-1 and 3-0 wins, respectively, in the first two contests before Logan Webb was a hard-luck loser in the finale.

Giants manager Tony Vitello said he was impressed by his team's performance vs. the Dodgers and hopes for repeat efforts against the Marlins.

'There's a lot of firepower,' Vitello noted about the Dodgers after Thursday's loss. 'To hold the entire lineup down for three straight days is just not something you'd go to Vegas and roll the dice on.'

Houser has yet to win in four starts in his first season with the Giants after spending last year with the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays. He's never lost to the Marlins, going 3-0 with a 3.22 ERA in five career outings, three as a starter.

--Field Level Media