Ryan Gusto finally got the result he’d been chasing, and the Marlins backed him up with enough offense and bullpen patchwork to beat the Red Sox 4-0 on Wednesday night at loanDepot park.
The win kept Miami from being swept, moved the club to 68-66 and left it four games behind the Padres for the final National League Wild Card with 28 games to play. After Thursday’s off-day, the Marlins head to Washington and Kansas City for a seven-game road trip.
Gusto’s first victory as a Marlin came with plenty of stress attached. He worked 5 2/3 scoreless innings, but he was constantly navigating traffic after hitting two batters, walking a season-high-tying three and giving up four hits, all singles. He still found ways out of trouble, and his biggest escape came in the second inning when he stranded the bases loaded after snaring a comebacker.
The right-hander kept grinding through the middle innings, and in the sixth he got Caleb Durbin to open with a single before turning a double play that erased the runner. Gusto finished with 12 groundouts, but after a hit-by-pitch and a single put runners on the corners, his night was done.
Victor Vodnik inherited that jam and immediately slammed the door, getting Anthony Seigler looking on a slider that caught the outside corner on the fifth pitch of the at-bat.
The outing also snapped an unusual streak for Gusto. He had been the first pitcher in franchise history not to win in his first 15 starts with the club, and Wednesday finally cleared that line. Gusto came to Miami in the return for Jesús Sánchez ahead of last year’s Trade Deadline.
The start mattered even more because the Marlins were short on bullpen arms. Heavy usage over the previous five games of the homestand, plus Pete Fairbanks’ injury, left several relievers unavailable, which is why Janson Junk had to step in out of the bullpen after starting Sunday against the Nationals. He threw 69 pitches in that outing, but on Wednesday he was sharp, firing a perfect eighth on eight pitches.
Dax Fulton, the rookie left-hander, handled the ninth and finished off the shutout.
Miami did its scoring early against Sonny Gray, then added two more in the eighth to put the game away. Kyle Stowers sparked the first with a leadoff single, moved to third on a throwing error and scored on Heriberto Hernández’s RBI single.
In the second, Otto Lopez started another run with a leadoff single, stole second and came home on catcher Connor Wong’s throwing error, which bounced off Lopez’s helmet and into the left-center gap. Lopez barely beat Ceddanne Rafaela’s throw to the plate.
The Marlins tacked on insurance in the eighth after Lopez singled again, stole second and advanced to third on another throwing error. He scored when first baseman Nick Sogard committed a fielding error on Owen Caissie’s grounder, and Javier Sanoja followed with a two-out RBI single.
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The encouraging part for the Marlins is that the stuff is playing in more ways than one. His sweeper has been harder to square up, with a lower slugging percentage against it, and the in-zone whiff rate is sitting near 25 percent, which points to bats missing even when he comes into the strike zone. The walks are still a concern, even if they are trending better, but with Prez now lined up as the No. 2 starter behind Sandy Alcantara, the rotation suddenly has a little more hope baked into it. [Read more 🡒]