Valente Bellozo's statement start not enough in Marlins loss

[Kevin Barral]

Fresh off being recalled from the minors, Valente Bellozo held the Atlanta Braves scoreless into the fifth inning on Friday night.

Through his two starts at the major league level, Valente Bellozo showed flashes of being starter who could contribute at the back end of a rotation. Following this week's trade of Trevor Rogers, Bellozo was brought up from Triple-A Jacksonville on Friday night to make his third start. Bellozo limited the Atlanta Braves to two runs, but a late-inning push by the Braves potent offense denied him of a win as the Miami Marlins fell by a final score of 5-3.

"He thinks he's Max Scherzer out there," Marlins manager Schumaker told Marlins Radio about Bellozo prior to the game. "He's super confident. He's on the attack and he's throwing his fastball with a little bit of cut at the top against lefties and he has a good changeup. I think the demeanor is what stands out the most."

Bellozo went five innings, struck out five and gave up two runs off of two hits and two walks. The Mexican pitcher attacked the strike zone, specifically early in counts, posting an outstanding 77.8% first-pitch strike rate. Although he didn't generate many whiffs, his cutter was able to get a lot of work done, being the putout pitch for three of his five strikeouts. The cutter and four-seam fastball were also crucial in attacking the zone.

The only damage done against Bellozo came in the bottom of the fifth inning when he allowed a solo homer to Orlando Arcia—his 11th of the season—and in the bottom of the sixth, when he allowed a leadoff triple to Whit Merrifield. Reliever Anthony Bender inherited Merrifield and an Austin Riley groundout was enough to score him.

"Went right at them," said Schumaker on Bellozo's start postgame. "A lot of strikes, elevated at times and a good changeup. He did a really good job. To think that he didn't even pitch in AAA until this year and now he's going against a really good Braves lineup in August and getting five strong innings is really impressive. Really happy for him. Just too bad we couldn't put it away."

"It was a really good outing," said Bellozo. "Attacking the zone, make them swing—I think that was the plan. Obviously, this is one of the best teams in the big leagues, really tough lineup, but we attacked. We had fun and enjoyed the game, so that's good."

Why was Bellozo removed after only 66 pitches? Schumaker noted the challenge of going up against the lineup a third time and the high amount of hard-hit balls (seven).

"With the triple and a 3-1 lead, Bender right there was the way to go in the meat of the order, just to keep the lead and hopefully add on runs. But we just didn't add on any runs, so made it a little bit more challenging."

To kick off the game, Xavier Edwards extended his on-base streak to 19 games and cleanup hitter Jonah Bride took Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach deep for a two-run shot to take an early 2-0 lead. That was Bride's second home run of the season. Through 19 games now with the Marlins, he quietly has a .744 OPS.

Jake Burger had himself a great month of July, posting a .963 OPS, marking the best month of his season thus far. Going into August, Burger has kept it up with his 16th home run of the season to extend the lead to 3-0.

Schwellenbach pitched well after that, though, going seven innings, striking out 10 and limiting Miami to those three runs off of six hits. The rookie right-hander generated 17 whiffs along with a 66.7% first-pitch strike rate. 

The Marlins still held a lead until the eighth inning when Calvin Faucher entered the game. Faucher had gone 8 ⅔ innings without allowing an earned run leading up to his appearance, but the Braves lineup got to him and he allowed three runs off of three hits and walked two.

Jorge Soler, who was recently traded back to the National League East, was hitless with his new team until tying the game with an RBI single. Another former Marlin, Marcell Ozuna, drove in the leading run on a sac fly and shortstop Orlando Arcia drove in the insurance run on an RBI single. That gave the Braves a 5-3 lead.

With the loss, the Marlins are now 40-70 on the season while the Braves improve to 60-49. Kyle Tyler is set to take the mound for Miami on Saturday with Grant Holmes going for the Braves. It'll be a matchup of two guys who have made starts mainly in the minor leagues this season. First pitch will be at 7:20 pm from Truist Park.

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[THOMAS JOSEPH]

Bellozo pitched well, I love his enthusiasm, and fundamentally disagree with Schumaker. What the hell is the problem with letting Bellozo go longer in a season like this? Sixty-six pitches, for crying out loud. These guys will never test their mettle and improve as long starters. Moreover, with a less seasoned bullpen, the team needs to take advantage of an opportunity to extend the starters even more.