MIAMI -- Marlins right-hander Tyler Zuber’s ultimate goal has been to lock down a game in the Major Leagues since beginning his professional career nine years ago.
Zuber, the owner of 60 Minor League saves, bided his time for an opportunity. Once he debuted in 2020 with the Royals, however, he shuttled back and forth between the Majors and Minors with five organizations.
When closer Pete Fairbanks encountered trouble during the ninth inning of Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the Rays at loanDepot park, the dugout called down to the bullpen for Zuber to warm up ahead of Jonathan Aranda’s plate appearance. If he got on, the guy on deck – none other than All-Star Junior Caminero – was his.
“I just got ready as fast as possible and it happened real quick,” Zuber said while removing shaving cream from his ears inside a celebratory postgame clubhouse.
The 30-year-old Zuber, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Jacksonville earlier this week because of numerous injuries to the pitching staff, didn’t need telling twice. This is the moment he had been waiting for.
With two runs already in and the bases loaded with two outs, the margin for error couldn’t be smaller. Zuber got ahead 0-2 on a called strike sweeper and a 95.4 mph four-seamer. After consecutive foul balls, Caminero chased a heater for the game-ending strikeout up and out of the zone.
“I'm still shaking right now,” Zuber said. “I'm shaking now more than I was [for] my debut, so that tells me that this means a lot.”
Zuber’s heroics, which came in his 68th career MLB outing, cemented the win against his former club in a bullpen game that featured seven pitchers.
With three starting pitchers sidelined due to injury, Miami has remained flexible with its pitching plans. Saturday marked the second consecutive bullpen day in this rotation spot.
Things went according to plan – if not better – for manager Clayton McCullough and the Marlins from the get-go.
After giving Miami 2 2/3 scoreless innings to open Tuesday’s win, righty Lake Bachar once again started things off and tossed three perfect frames on Saturday.
“Threw the baseball over the plate as much as I could,” said Bachar, who ran from the bullpen to the mound to start the game. “I just think in general, just get ahead, stay ahead.”
Right-hander Anthony Bender kept the line moving with a perfect fourth, highlighted by center fielder Esteury Ruiz’s diving catch to rob Yandy Díaz to open the frame.
Miami’s bid for a perfect game came to an end in the fifth, when leadoff batter Richie Palacios sent a grounder to the left side of the infield, where a shifted Javier Sanoja went to his backhand and one-hopped a throw that first baseman Connor Norby couldn’t pick. It went down as a throwing error on Sanoja.
Following a strikeout, lefty John King relieved Bender and hit Cedric Mullins with a pitch. But King got out of the jam by inducing an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to maintain the no-hitter.
Tampa Bay broke up the combined no-hitter in the sixth on former Marlin Victor Mesa Jr.’s leadoff single to center against righty Calvin Faucher. After another single and a wild pitch, Faucher stranded the pair of runners in scoring position and worked a scoreless seventh.
In the eighth, righty Michael Petersen allowed an RBI double to Díaz. Fairbanks coughed up two runs in the ninth before coming out after a career-high-tying 39 pitches.
"They're frustrating to try to navigate through,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Nobody gets in a rhythm at all, because you're not seeing the same pitcher. You can't do it every day, but today they did a nice job over there, matching up and kind of picking the right spots to bring guys in."
With Monday’s scheduled off-day, right-hander Max Meyer will be able to start Tuesday’s series opener against the D-backs. Both righties Ryan Gusto and Tyler Phillips will be available as bulk options over the next two games.
While Friday’s bullpen-adjacent game – Gusto opened (two innings) and Phillips provided bulk (4 2/3 innings) – didn’t work in the Marlins’ favor, Saturday’s did.
Could we see more of it in the future?
“Who we're playing, and what's available, and what we think is the best way to get through a nine-inning game, whether that's going traditional starter or we're still rolling with a nine-man bullpen,” McCullough said. “It's just kind of all hands on deck right now, and guys have been great and understand where we're at. We'll look to what's the best way we think to go win a game with the arms that we have available.”