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Posted at 11:30 AM EST. 

3:00 PM EST. Martin Perez (LHP) crashed back to earth after a hit%/strand%-fueled mirage in the 1st half of last season. He kept the ball on ground, though not quite to 2015's degree and it’s getting worse this year with a 42% rate after five starts. Other signs are gloomy too, as Perez doesn't miss enough bats to reverse an ugly strikeout rate slide. Perez has walked 15 batters in 26 frames this year. His poor xERA from last season is holding steady again at 5.05 this year. Lots and lots of bad innings are in store for this stiff but this one is priced like the pitching matchup is even. It’s not.

J.C. Ramirez (RHP) has a 4.47 ERA after three starts and three relief appearances but one poor relief outing has caused most of the damage. Ramirez is a pitcher that is proving to be hard to hit. His high-octane fastball is finally translating into strikeouts. Ramirez has whiffed 22 batters in 22 innings while walking just seven and brings a 3.44 xERA into this start. He's always been of the "live arm" variety and perhaps knowing that he’ll be starting every fifth day has resulted in a sense of calmness and confidence. Take out his relief appearances in which he was trying too hard to do too much in an inning and Ramirez’s last three appearances, all starts, have all been progressively better, capped off by a two-hit gem in seven innings in his last start. Better suited to start than relieve, Ramirez is absolutely the better option here and so are the Halos.  

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