It takes a village to raise a child. These days, it might take one to win a game for the Miami Marlins<\/p>\n
This month, no team in the National League has dug into their bullpen more than the Marlins, who have already used 11 different relief pitchers this week.<\/p>\n
In Miami\u2019s 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Marlins effectively cycled through seven pitchers, carrying a combined perfect game into the fifth inning and a no-hitter game into the sixth.<\/p>\n
Right-handed pitcher Lake Bachar earned his second start of the week after not allowing a hit over 2 2\/3 innings in the Marlins\u2019 7-3 win over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLake\u2019s a good pitcher. He\u2019s got weapons that let him attack hitters from both sides,\u201d said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. \u201cHe exceeded expectations with that today. It\u2019s hard to go nine up nine down right out of the chute.\u201d<\/p>\n
He followed that with another hitless outing Saturday, striking out three over three innings before being replaced by right-hander Anthony Bender, who also did not allow a hit in his only inning.<\/p>\n
Of the seven pitchers Miami used, only two, Calvin Faucher and Pete Fairbanks, allowed multiple hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes a long way,\u201d Bachar said of the pitching staff\u2019s willingness to embrace a next-man-up approach as Miami navigates its rotation injuries. \u201cWe understand how our bullpen\u2019s been running. We know to go out as long as we can and hand the ball to the next guy, and he\u2019s going to pick you up.\u201d<\/p>\n
In stark contrast to Friday night\u2019s lopsided 6-0 loss, Saturday\u2019s win showcased the kind of adaptability Miami will need to stay afloat as its rotation remains short-handed.<\/p>\n
With injuries to Janson Junk, Eury Perez and Robby Snelling, McCullough walked through the allocation of chess pieces that he has to deal with as he puts together the bullpen brigades needed to get his squad through a limited stretch<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a juncture in the game where a decision comes for which way you want to pivot,\u201d McCullough said before the game. \u201cWe have nine relievers today that we could utilize. You run those handoffs as far as you can go.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Rays came alive for three runs during the final two innings, Miami\u2019s early offensive burst built enough of a cushion for Tyler Zuber to earn his first career save.<\/p>\n
Third baseman Javier Sanoja led the way, hitting his second home run of the season while going 3 for 4 with two RBI.<\/p>\n
Shortstop Otto Lopez continued to make a strong case for All-Star consideration, going 2 for 4 with two singles.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next<\/p>\n
The Marlins will look to earn the series win as they wrap up their three-game set against the Rays on Sunday at loanDepot park.<\/p>\n
First pitch is scheduled for 1:40 p.m.<\/p>\n
Miami is expected to send Sandy Alcantara to the mound against Tampa Bay right-hander Griffin Jax.<\/p>\n
Alcantara is one of the last pitchers standing from the Marlins\u2019 Opening Day rotation, entering Sunday with a 4-4 record and 4.59 ERA this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It takes a village to raise a child. These days, it might take one to win a game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-298922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}