MIAMI -- Hours before Wednesday night’s 4-0 victory over the Red Sox at loanDepot park, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough wouldn’t reveal which relievers were unavailable for the series finale.
After seeing how the game unfolded, it now makes sense.
Due to the bullpen’s usage over the previous five games of the homestand and Pete Fairbanks’ injury, righty Victor Vodnik and lefties Dax Fulton and Patrick Monteverde were the only ones at McCullough’s disposal.
Right-hander Ryan Gusto chose the perfect time to pick up his elusive first win as a Marlin, while starter Janson Junk came on in relief for a shorthanded bullpen to help Miami (68-66) avoid the sweep and remain four games behind San Diego for the final National League Wild Card with 28 games remaining.
“That was what we went into tonight with,” McCullough said. “We threw a shutout, so credit to them and the guys behind them making plays. And Ryan set the tone.”
Gusto went 5 2/3 innings but flirted with traffic throughout by hitting two batters, walking a season-high-tying three and permitting four hits (all singles). His greatest escape act came in the second, when he stranded the bases loaded after corralling a comebacker.
In the sixth, Gusto allowed a leadoff single to Caleb Durbin before inducing a double play -- he recorded 12 groundouts on the evening -- to erase the runner. The ensuing hit-by-pitch and single, however, chased Gusto with runners on the corners.
“I tried not to put any additional pressure on myself,” Gusto said of knowing how thin the bullpen was. “I think it's a bad thing that I was aware of it. Obviously, you are, right? That's unavoidable. But that's just not something you want to be thinking about in-game. You have to focus on making every pitch to the best of your ability, and getting outs really is what it comes down to. So you can't be worried too much about outside factors. But I was aware, of course.”
Vodnik took over for Gusto and struck out Anthony Seigler looking on a slider that clipped the outside corner on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, putting Gusto in line for the victory.
Wednesday helped Gusto move on from a dubious distinction: He had been the first pitcher in franchise history to not earn a win in his first 15 starts with the club. Gusto joined the Marlins as part of the return for Jesús Sánchez ahead of last year’s Trade Deadline.
“I'd say I'm a completely different pitcher than when I was traded for originally, and I'm even a very different pitcher from two months ago,” said Gusto, who has a 1.85 ERA in August. “I think that development isn't linear. It's a good time to look back on that and acknowledge that. The coaching staff believed in me the whole way and kept working with me on the things that we needed to work on, and I'm really happy with the trend that we've been seeing with that.”
Then came the biggest surprise of the evening: Junk, who threw 69 pitches across 4 2/3 innings in Sunday’s start against the Nationals, was called upon to pitch the eighth.
McCullough and pitching coach Daniel Moskos had approached Junk with the idea following Tuesday’s game. Since Junk’s pitch design session was already scheduled for Wednesday, this could serve as that -- just with actual stakes involved.
“I don't think I would be able to do that [tonight] if I threw 80 [pitches last time out],” said Junk, who needed just eight pitches to toss a perfect eighth. “[It] kind of just worked out for the team. I was willing to do that for the guys. I know how taxed the bullpen has been, and if I was feeling good enough to do it and not put myself in jeopardy of getting hurt, I was willing to do it.”
With the Marlins adding two insurance runs in the eighth, Fulton entered the ninth in a non-save situation.
“It's kind of what I've been wanting,” said Fulton, who recorded three outs on 10 pitches. “When you switch to a reliever role, I feel like you want those high-leverage situations. [The] bullpen's been beat up a little bit the last couple of days, and they're looking for guys that need to step up. We needed Gusto to do what he did, Junk going out there doing what he did. That's all impressive. Vodnik, same thing, going out there, going back-to-back, doing a good job.
“I just want to be the guy that goes out there and gets it done as well. That's all we want to do is hand it off to the next guy. We had a shutout going. [I] want to keep that intact.”