Yasiel Puig sits again, A.J. Ellis catches second straight game

Yasiel Puig remains out of the Dodgers lineup for a third straight day in the series opener against the Marlins, still dealing with an open blister on his left hand.

Scott Van Slyke gets the start in right field in place of Puig on Friday night against the left-hander Justin Nicolino. Van Slyke is hitting .276/.417/.448 in all of 36 plate appearances against southpaws this season.

Alex Guerrero starts in left field.

A.J. Ellis gets the start at catcher, which is noteworthy for a few reasons. He started Thursday's finale in Chicago, which makes this the first time Ellis has started back-to-back games this season when Yasmani Grandal was on the active roster. When Grandal was on the seven-day concussion disabled list, Ellis caught five of six games, including four straight.

This also means that, unless he is hurt, Grandal will catch Clayton Kershaw on Saturday, snapping a string of seven straight Kershaw-Ellis pairings. Grandal has caught three of Kershaw's 15 starts this season.

The Dodgers are nearing the end of 20 games in 20 days, and with Saturday's 4 p.m. EDT local start close enough to a day game, this is essentially a night game followed by a day game, a situation this season the Dodgers have usually split up the catching starts, so Ellis was going to start one of the weekend games anwyay.

Ellis in his last 10 games, including nine starts, is hitting .292/.433/.375 with two doubles and six walks.

The only Marlins in the lineup to face Brett Anderson more than two plate appearances are Jeff Baker (1-for-4 with a double and a walk), Giancarlo Stanton (0-for-3) and Christian Yelich (0-for-3).