CHICAGO - Josh Ekness didn’t have to wonder how hard he was throwing Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. The scoreboard placement gave the Marlins reliever a clean look every time he turned back toward the mound after a throw from catcher Joe Mack, and the numbers kept climbing.
Hours before he ever took the ball, Ekness had been talking with fellow reliever Victor Vodnik about Vodnik’s recent 101.3 mph reading on the radar gun - a mark Ekness said he hadn’t matched since High-A ball in 2024. Then the game started, and Ekness immediately knew something was different.
“It was really ironic because then five hours later, I go out and first pitch was 101, and I was like, ‘Oh, it's coming out good today,’” Ekness said.
By the time the game reached the 11th inning tied at 2, Ekness was still overpowering the Cubs. He struck out Dansby Swanson with a triple-digit four-seamer, intentionally walked Pete Crow-Armstrong and then finished the inning by getting Seiya Suzuki to ground out. Afterward, before he went in for arm care, Ekness asked pitching coach Daniel Moskos whether the 102 had been rounded up.
It had not. The 102.0 mph strikeout was the second-fastest strikeout pitch by a Marlins pitcher under tracking since 2008, trailing only Tyron Guerrero’s 102.5 mph pitch on Sept. 14, 2019.
“I didn't know if I even had that in the tank,” Ekness said. “I know I had a few 101s in the tank previously, but I didn't even know I'd be capable of throwing a ball that hard.”
The velocity jump showed up across the board. Ekness’ four-seamer was up 2.3 mph, and his sinker gained 2.6 mph.
He threw eight pitches at 100 mph or better, tying for the 16th most in a relief appearance by a Marlin since 2008. His 100.4 mph average fastball velocity tied for ninth.
“It’s a real fastball,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “It's a unique slot with that type of velocity, and he's got a good breaking ball. With him, when he's in the [strike zone] and he's able to get ahead of people with those types of weapons, we believe Josh can be a really lights-out reliever at this level.”
For Ekness, the big-league road has already had a few detours. The 24-year-old had his contract selected from Triple-A Jacksonville on May 2, spent nearly two weeks in the majors, then was optioned back down.
Miami recalled him on May 29, but a fluke right calf strain kept him out until Aug. 3.
Before the injury, he had allowed just one run in 5 1/3 innings over his first six major league outings.
When he returned, he kept rolling. From Aug. 5-29, Ekness allowed five runs, two earned, with three walks and eight strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings for a 1.35 ERA.
The stretch that followed was rougher. Over his next eight appearances, he issued at least one walk in all but one game and gave up multiple runs in three of them.
“We noticed almost way back toward Philadelphia [on Aug. 18] that I started getting a little more crossfire than usual, and I was missing with some of the direction and the consistency and how drastic the misses were,” Ekness said.
But after back-to-back multi-run outings on Sept. 7 and 9, he has settled back in. Ekness has gone five straight appearances without allowing an earned run, giving up three hits, walking three batters - two intentionally - and striking out seven.
He said a shift in mindset also helped, pointing to his Sept. 15 extra-inning outing in Arizona, when the automatic runner scored. With the situation already tilted against him, he felt freer and less burdened on the mound.
“That night, I was free of expectations, and it was more just enjoying the moment and competing,” Ekness said. “And once I got back here, I really felt like I could let it go.”
McCullough believes nights like that can matter as much as any radar reading.
“To be able to get back here and be thrust into a lot of different types of situations, you hope nights like last night, the two-inning outing in Arizona in extra innings, help show him how good he is,” McCullough said. “We can only tell him how good he is so much.
Josh needs to believe that, and you hope when you go out and you do that against Major League hitters, that you believe it, because certainly it's not a talent issue. It's just going to be his own belief and his ability to get the ball in the [zone].”
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