Fairbanks tabbed to start, get early jump on joining expectant wife

NEW YORK -- The Marlins made a pitching change before the start of Sunday’s game against the Yankees. Miami decided to have a bullpen game, starting with right-hander Pete Fairbanks.

Miami’s original plan was to start right-hander Chris Paddack for the 1:35 p.m. ET game at Yankee Stadium. But with the game starting late because of inclement weather, the team decided to put Fairbanks on the mound because he needs to leave Yankee Stadium as soon as possible to return to Florida and be with his wife, Lydia, who is scheduled to give birth to their fourth child Monday.

Fairbanks is expected to be placed on the paternity list after Sunday’s game.

Fairbanks, who last pitched Tuesday, hasn’t allowed a run in three innings this season. Paddack was set to pitch in Sunday’s game out of the bullpen.

“With the rain delay, I wanted [Fairbanks] to get back with the birth of his child,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said.

“If this was a normal start time, we would run things normally. We would have Chris start. With this [game] getting pushed back to potentially when it is going to happen, we want to get an inning or so out of Pete either way. He is going to be out of the mix for a few days, so we felt it was best to grab that early on.”