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It’s unlikely to happen too often during this 2013 MLB season, but for a good portion of their Saturday contest against the Cincinnati Reds, the underdog Miami Marlins found themselves in a close-fought pitchers’ duel.
Except, well, it didn’t have much to do with their starter Wade LeBlanc, who departed the game after four innings, having thrown 85 pitches and allowing two runs on seven hits and three walks.
Instead, it was the Marlins bullpen who were the unlikely heroes of the afternoon, combining for one shutout inning after another from the fifth on, even as the team’s punchless offense couldn’t get any more than the pair of runs they needed to get this thing into extras.
So when the Marlins finally called upon their closer (and best reliever) Steve Cishek in the 12th, they were probably preparing to play this battle of attrition on further into the late afternoon.
Not quite. Although Cishek did manage to come out of the 12th unscathed (having worked around a Chris Heisey single), he couldn’t do the same against the heart of the Reds order in the 13th inning. The culprit was a leadoff hit — a double from leadoff man Shin Shoo-Choo — that the righty couldn’t quite work around, as that mistake represented the eventual winning run scored three batters later on a walk-off sacrifice fly.
It was another disappointing early-season outing from the Marlins closer, who had just come off recording his first save of the season a day prior. Sure, he hasn’t exactly been given a whole lot of opportunities, but with just three clean outings in eight appearances in 2013, he hasn’t exactly been the shutdown type that the team expected either.
Now, this was his second consecutive day of work, and he was asked to throw more than one frame; that said, Cishek’s early-season .273 BAA and 5.63 ERA through eight innings of work are both second-worst among the team’s bullpen (only bettering the recently DFA’d John Maine), and that’s not much of a vote of confidence.
Though, that’s where the doom and gloom ends.
No, Cishek hasn’t shown a whole lot of consistency, but the fact is that this is a pitcher with a 9:2 (one intentional) K:BB ratio, and his 1.93 FIP suggests that a correction, and the accompanying clean innings, are coming in a hurry as long as he can keep it up.
Does it take away the sting that if it weren’t for him, the Marlins bullpen would have nearly pitched a full nine innings of shutout ball? Probably not, but there is some consolation in knowing that their closer, despite having been the one who spoiled things on Saturday, is likely going to be just fine going forward.
