Braxton Garrett and Marlins bullpen brilliant in shutout win

On Braxton Garrett’s very first pitch of Saturday’s game, Thairo Estrada smashed a 105 mile-per-hour line drive for a single. An inauspicious beginning, to say the least. But not only did the Miami Marlins left-hander strand Estrada on the bases, he retired 19 of the next 20 batters he faced while authoring arguably the best start of his major league career.

Garrett’s trusty slider and his new favorite toy, the cutter, were the keys to his success (6.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, 76 pitches/57 strikes). Those weapons combined to accumulate all 12 of his swinging strikes. Even when the Giants put balls in play, most of those didn’t leave the infield.

Aside from Estrada, the only batter who reached base safely against Garrett was LaMonte Wade Jr.—he drew a full-count walk in the bottom of the second.

Alas, Garrett had to settle for a no-decision. Skip Schumaker removed him with one out in the seventh in favor of a fresh arm because the game was still stuck in a scoreless tie.

Giants right-hander Logan Webb matched zeroes with Garrett (6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K) by painting the corners and generating a ton of grounders. The Marlins had their best scoring opportunity against Webb in the fourth with runners on the corners and only one out. Joey Wendle let him off the hook by grounding into a rally-killing double play.

Luis Arraez suffered the same fate in the sixth. As a team, the Marlins have grounded into an MLB-high 43 DPs.

Small ball was responsible for putting Miami on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth. Garrett Hampson reached on an error by J.D. Davis, Xavier Edwards sac-bunted him to second and Jon Berti delivered an RBI single.

JT Chargois, Tanner Scott and Dylan Floro combined for the final eight outs. A great running catch by Hampson in deep left-center helped Floro pick up his fifth save of the season.

Additional Info

• This was only the second shutout pitched by the Marlins in 2023. You remember the other one: Sandy Alcantara vs. the Minnesota Twins on April 4.
• All five games between the Marlins and Giants this season have been closely contested. They’ve each scored exactly 14 runs during their season series.
• Garrett allowed 11 earned runs to the Atlanta Braves on May 3. In eight other appearances covering 38 ²⁄₃ innings, he has allowed 11 earned runs total (2.56 ERA).
• Bryan De La Cruz extended his hitting streak to 14 games. It’s the longest active streak in the majors.
• Wendle struck out twice, bumping up his strikeout rate to an uncharacteristically poor 25.0%. In 2022, he had a 13.5 K%.

Baseball Savant

Probable starters for Sunday’s series finale are quality left-handers Jesús Luzardo and Alex Wood. When Wood faced the Fish in Miami last month, he suffered a left hamstring strain and only recently returned to San Francisco’s rotation. Once again, it’s a scheduled 4:05 p.m. ET first pitch.