Bellozo earns first career win with help from Hill's grand slam

MIAMI, FL—When Valente Bellozo took the mound in Atlanta five days ago, the Marlins starter completed five impressive innings, going into the sixth, but not recording an out. The rookie took another step forward on Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds, Bellozo pitched a career-high 5 ⅔ shutout innings, striking out four, walking two and allowing five hits. He was given a large lead thanks to newest Marlin Derek Hill and the Marlins defeated the Reds by a final score of 6-4.

The same Reds lineup that scored 10 runs in the opening game of this series and eight more in the second game couldn't put anything on the scoreboard while Bellozo was on the mound. This marked Bellozo's first career win at the Major League level.

"He doesn't have much velocity, but his pitch shapes are really good," said Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. "All of his other characteristics on his secondary stuff, the shaping is really good. The goal of pitching is to miss bats or miss barrels and he is missing barrels at a really good percentage so that's a credit to him."

Bellozo's four-seam fastball averaged only 89.4 mph and maxed out at 91.8 mph. It was still by far his most-used pitch and accounted for three of his nine whiffs.

This season, Marlins pitchers have had no success containing Reds superstar Elly De La Cruz. On Wednesday night, however, Bellozo struck him out twice with two fastballs inside. De La Cruz ended the night going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and one walk after having combined for eight hits between the first two games of the series.

One thing that stands out about Bellozo is he's extremely confident, something Schumaker has observed as well. Bellozo has been meeting with a psychologist for the last year or so and he mentioned that the biggest takeaway is just keeping a positive mindset.

"I think the better mindset is, it's a game," said Bellozo. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes you throw your best pitch and it's a base hit and some days you are not and it's an out. That's the game. I think if we enjoy the game, have fun, embrace every sensation, every moment. I think that's really the mindset."

On August 3, the Marlins claimed outfielder Derek Hill off waivers. Four days later, Hill took Reds starter Andrew Abbott deep for a grand slam. That marked Hill's first career grand slam and the team's third grand slam this season (Jazz Chisholm Jr. had the previous two). Hill is the first Marlins hitter to hit a grand slam in one of his first three games with the team since Jerar Encarnación in 2022 against the New York Mets.

"What it's all about is, are you ready for your opportunity?" said Schumaker. "There's going to be guys we said earlier that are going to get their first shot of playing a lot at this level and Hill is one of them. He was a first-rounder years ago. He's a journeyman, but he hits the ball as hard as anybody. If he can cut down the strikeouts a little bit and hit the ball as hard as he's hitting it, he's gonna be okay up here."

After getting off to a rough start this season, Jake Burger has turned it up a notch since the Marlins visited Cincinnati last month. On Wednesday, Burger went 2-for-4 with two home runs. It marked his fifth career multi-homer game. Burger also has hit 12 homers in his last 30 games. He now leads Miami with 19 total long balls in 2024.

The Marlins held a 6-0 lead entering the top of the seventh inning, but that's when the Reds answered back with a grand slam of their own from TJ Friedl against reliever Andrew Nardi. This was only the second game in the Major League Baseball season where both teams have hit a grand slam.

Down 6-4, the Reds made it interesting in the ninth inning. New Marlins closer Calvin Faucher loaded the bases, but was able to escape it and earned his second save of the season.

With the win, the Marlins are now 43-72. They will aim for a series split on Thursday with Kyle Tyler taking the mound and the Reds going with All-Star Hunter Greene, who has been one of the best pitchers in baseball as of late.