Puk gets chased early, offense can't compensate

MIAMI, FL—Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said before Friday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates that his bullpen was “crushed.” That's because they had to use six relievers in a 6-5 loss on Opening Day.

After Friday’s starting pitcher A.J. Puk was chased from the game in the third inning, the already-taxed bullpen needed to be called upon again.

Puk, making his first major league start after being a reliever for the first four years of his major league career, was extremely inefficient. In two innings of work, he allowed four runs on six walks, three hits, and four runs while striking out just one. He did not record an out in the third and exited having thrown 68 pitches (only 33 for strikes).

The lanky lefty attributed his poor outing to grip issues on the ball.

“That's definitely not who I am, I don’t walk too many guys,” Puk said. “It's just one of those days where the ball just didn’t feel comfortable in my hand today. It kind of felt like everything was a little bit off.”

Bryan Hoeing, the man the Marlins used many times as a multi-inning relief pitcher last season, stranded both runners he inherited when he entered in the third. He pitched four innings, with his only blemish coming on a Connor Joe RBI double in his final inning of work in the sixth.

Schumaker said they’ll push Hoeing to about 60 to 65 pitches going forward.

“He gave us plenty," Schumaker said. “We had a lot of guys that were down today. Four guys that were not going to be used today. So we were pretty light today.”

Reliever Burch Smith, who the Marlins just acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on March 27, picked up two innings after Hoeing and allowed two runs on five hits.

With Hoeing and Smith having thrown 57 and 37 pitches, respectively, they clearly won't be available to contribute on Saturday afternoon when this series resumes. It's reasonable to assume that George Soriano will be down as well. Although Soriano only threw 11 pitches in the ninth inning, he also threw 24 pitches on Thursday and has never relieved on back-to-back-to-back days.

While some teams have a day off after their season openers to accommodate possible rainouts, the Marlins begin their season with eight games in eight days, further necessitating clean games from starting pitchers moving forward. The bullpen's heavy usage thus far may necessitate a roster move to bring up a fresh arm.

The Marlins offense didn’t do the 'pen any favors. Aside from a Jake Burger RBI single in the third inning, the Marlins were anemic with the bats.

They grounded into four double plays and have grounded into seven double plays in their first 21 innings of 2024. Avi García, who has been the subject of intense booing every time he has come up to the plate in the first two games of the season, grounded into two double plays Friday.