A.J. Puk shines in first rotation audition

[Noah Berger]

Used exclusively in relief during his first Marlins season, Puk retired six of the seven batters he faced on Tuesday.

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL—In a stark reminder that final scores don't matter in spring training, the Marlins drew more positives than negatives from a 7-1 loss to the Mets.

 

A.J. Puk makes his first rotation audition

On the same day that his good friend was named the Opening Day starter, A.J. Puk shined in his first spring appearance as he builds towards a possible spot in the starting rotation going into the regular season. He pitched two solid innings, racking up three strikeouts and just one walk without allowing a hit on 26 pitches.

Puk mixed in five different pitches: a 4-seam fastball, a sinker, a slider, a sweeper, and a new-grip changeup. During his time in college, Puk threw a traditional circle-change, but it appears from both Statcast and Puk referring to the changeup as a "splitter" that he is now going with a split-fingered grip on his offspeed pitch. 

Puk said of the preparation for today's game, "It's nice to get that routine going again—just go out there and make sure my body is ready to go and make that start."

 

Tristan Gray lives in Jorge López's nightmares

The Marlins have only hit two home runs so far this spring. Both of them have come off the bat of NRI Tristan Gray.

Gray spent last season in the Rays' organization, where he hit his first major league home run off of former Marlin Jorge López in a game against the Orioles in September. With López on the mound for the Mets today, Gray smelled blood in the water and sent the first pitch he saw over the center-field wall.

Tristan said of seeing López on the mound, "I was wondering who was coming in. I saw it was him, which gave me a little calmness going up there. I was like, alright, I know exactly what he's got. I've faced him up there before, so I knew what he was going to throw."

 

Manager's Musings

Skip Schumaker was very impressed with how A.J. Puk looked out there and is excited to see the guys fighting for rotation spots going forward.  He preached patience when it comes to Josh Simpson's struggles in his first two outings, reminding us that it's not even March yet.

On Simpson specifically: "He's got to throw strikes. I mean, you cannot play at this level and not throw strikes. You're playing with fire. He knows that. It's nothing new and he's going to learn from every outing that he has up here. He still has his stuff. His curveball has always been his pitch; he just hasn't gotten the feeling for it yet. Once he gets a feel for that pitch, he'll be okay."

 

Noah's Notes

• Edward Cabrera will start Wednesday's game in Jupiter against the Houston Astros. George Soriano is scheduled to pitch in relief.
• Sixto Sánchez is tentatively scheduled to pitch against the Phillies in Clearwater on Friday.
• Tim Anderson took live BP today against Vladimir Gutierrez.

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