MIAMI – Marlins rookie Owen Caissie always tells himself he’s going to get the chance to face lefties, and to be ready should the opportunity present itself. He does so by training against lefty angles and breaking balls on a daily basis in the cages.
Like many young hitters across the Majors, however, the scouting report usually says the likelihood of a hit with a lefty on the mound is better with a right-handed batter in the box. For a club like Miami that tries to maximize its lineup, that means overloading the order with righty bats against a southpaw.
With the Marlins trailing by one in the seventh inning of Friday night’s game against the Giants at loanDepot park, the opportunity arose for Caissie.
Pinch-hitter Esteury Ruiz was hit by a pitch and Javier Sanoja bunted for a hit to open the frame. Liam Hicks then tied the game with an RBI single.
Instead of pinch-hitting for the left-handed-hitting Caissie, manager Clayton McCullough allowed him to face southpaw Sam Hentges. Caissie was 5-for-26 (.192) with a .545 OPS vs. lefties in just 29 career plate appearances – all this season.
Caissie rewarded his skipper’s faith by lifting a go-ahead sacrifice fly to left in a 4-3 comeback victory. In a three-hit performance that fell a triple shy of the cycle and included a game-high three RBIs, the ability to come up clutch in that circumstance was what he was most proud of.
“I'm always ready for the challenge, and glad to have it tonight,” Caissie said.
It was Caissie who started off the scoring by lining a solo shot just over the center-field wall in the first. His second homer in as many games came on righty Landen Roupp’s cutter.
After San Francisco knotted the game in the second, Miami regained the lead in the fifth, when Sanoja led off the frame with a double and moved to third on Hicks’ groundout to short. With the infield in, Caissie sent a chopper over first baseman Bryce Eldridge’s head for an RBI double.
Caissie, who bunted for a hit for the first time in his career in the third, notched his third three-hit performance of the season, and first since April 9. While Caissie has gone deep three times and driven in nine over his last seven games, he has just six hits total (five for extra bases) during that span.
“I want to keep pressing the gas and keep going, but that’s just baseball,” Caissie said.
The 23-year-old did all of this on Friday while batting second in the starting lineup for the first time in his young career. McCullough slotted him in there with Xavier Edwards resting a jammed thumb and Roupp profiling as an east/west pitcher who could be advantageous to Caissie.
“The decision point of leaving him in there was [Ryan] Walker's warming up in the bullpen, and it's a really tough at-bat versus right, and no knock on Hentges – he's a tough arm as well – but more the overhand look, that slot, Owen certainly can hang in there. As compared to the pinch-hit, and now Walker's coming, crossfire, stepping in the dugout, throwing the ball behind you. I just felt like that would be choosing between the two.”
On the pitching side of things, Miami elected to go with a bullpen game following an off-day to give its starters an extra day of rest. The fourth bullpen game opened by righty Lake Bachar this month ended in a win for the third time. Eight pitchers combined to leave seven runners on base, and closer Pete Fairbanks recorded his 100th career save.
The win returned Miami (38-38) to .500, improved upon its MLB-best record in June (12-4) and extended its home winning streak to six. Plus, pregame news consisted of Eury Pérez and Griffin Conine likely being reinstated from the injured list this upcoming week.
“With a bullpen game, you run the risk of one of however many not being on. But you also run the risk of running out eight guys in different looks, with all the plus stuff, and I think that the guys that we have, I'll take my chances that they're going to be on for any given day,” Fairbanks said. “You can say that Lake wasn't his sharpest – and it was still pretty freaking good – or you can say this or that. But I'll take the nine guys down there, and their variety of arm actions and movement profiles, against any lineup.”