Right-hander Carlos Zambrano will face his old team tonight as the Marlins face Venezuela at Roger Dean Stadium.
Zambrano, 31, remains unsigned after going 7-10 with a 4.49 ERA in his lone season in Miami. He started 20 games before being demoted to the bullpen where appeared in 15 more game
Venezuela features four former Marlins: Zambrano, 3B Miguel Cabrera, IF Omar Infante and P Anibal Sanchez and one current Marlin, P Henderson Alvarez. Infante is coming off the bench with Marco Scutaro starting at 2B.
“For Infante to be sitting on the bench for any team is kind of funny,” Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. “You look at that lineup and they’re loaded. It will be fun to go out there and it will be a nice challenge to our pitching staff. Hopefully we can give them a run.”
Redmond was teammates with Cabrera on the Marlins 2003 World Series winning team.
“He was a special player for us in 2003 when he came to the big leagues,” Redmond said. “Him and Dontrelle (Willis) energized our team. We don’t go to the playoffs without those two guys for sure.
“Miggy got a lot of big hits for us. The thing I’ll always remember is the kid came up as a third baseman and in the World Series he’s playing left. Jack (McKeon) wasn’t afraid to throw him out there in left and how well he did. You bring a 21-year-old kid up to the big leagues and you’re asking him to play out of position in left field. You never noticed him because he was so good out there.
“He hit a big home run off Roger Clemens after Rocket knocked him down. Those are the things I remember. Hopefully we can get him out a couple of times tonight.”
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc is starting for the Marlins, the left-hander’s second start (third outing) this spring.
POLANCO SET TO RETURN
3B Placido Polanco went through full baseball activities today and Redmond expects him to be in the lineup on Wednesday for the game against the Cardinals. Polanco was given off two days because of tightness in his back.
Greg Dobbs will miss a couple of days because of a strained calf.
TONIGHT’S LINEUPS
MARLINS
LF Pierre
2B Solano
C Brantly
DH Kouzmanoff
1B Kotchman
SS Hechavarria
RF Coghlan
2B Figgins
CF Mattison
VENEZUELA
SS Elvis Andrus
DH Asdrubal Cabrera
1B Miguel Cabrera
3B Pablo Sandoval
RB Carlos Gonzalez
C Miguel Montero
LF Martin Prado
CF Gerardo Parra
2B Marco Scutaro
