Bullpen in Flux After Extra Inning Loss

The Miami Marlins held the longest game in Marlin Park history last night. A 16-inning loss to the Mets. After the loss, there have been a few roster moves.

After a tough loss for the Miami Marlins, the bullpen is exhausted. With Wei-Yin Chen leaving early in the game, the Marlins rolled through their entire bullpen last night. All but A.J. Ramos, who had thrown in two straight games prior to last night.

Jose Urena came in very early after Chen failed to break into the fourth inning. Urena stayed in for three innings of one run ball. Then Kyle Barraclaugh in the seventh pitched to a shut out inning. Side note, Barraclaugh is the most effectively wild pitcher I think I have ever seen.

Barraclaugh’s great inning was followed by David Phelps. Phelps blew another save, his second on the season. After Phelps’ departure at the conclusion of the eighth, Brad Ziegler pitched another shut down inning.

Dustin McGowan, Junichi Tazawa, and Nick Wittgren combined for six-innings of one-hit ball. Adam Conley came in just in time to give up the game winning long ball to Travis d’Arnaud.

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Wittgren was phenomenal in his three innings pitched. No hits and three strikeouts were exactly what the Marlins needed in order to have a chance of winning. The downside to that performance is that it took 45 pitches to do so.

Because of the exhaustion of that outing from all aspects of the bullpen, the Marlins needed a fresh arm. When this happens, there will be someone who has to be sent down for some rest. Unfortunately for Wittgren, he is the only Marlins pitcher who still had options remaining.

Going Down and Coming Up

Tim Healy of the Sun Sentinel reported early this morning that Wittgren has in fact been sent down to Triple-A New Orleans.

With Wittgren going down to the minors that opened up a spot to bring up a pitcher to take his place. Taking Wittgren’s place, the Fish have called up lefty Jarlin Garcia from Double-A Jacksonville.

Garcia, the Marlins number four prospect according to MLB Pipeline, has never thrown a pitch of Major League baseball. Along with joining the Fish, Garcia will be joining as their only left in the bullpen.

However, Garcia did have a great Spring Training for the Fish throwing five scoreless innings. That was Spring Training though, games are for real and batters are zeroing in on pitchers.

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I wouldn’t expect for Wittgren to spend long in Triple-A before coming back up. This move was simply to provide depth for an exhausted bullpen.