Mike Quade threw Carlos Marmol right back into the fire following his disastrous blown save yesterday, but the Cubs’ closer looked extremely shaky again today and was yanked with two outs in the ninth inning against the Marlins.
Marmol came on to close out a 2-0 lead, but walked leadoff man Omar Infante on four pitches, got Gaby Sanchez to pop out, and then gave up a long single to Hanley Ramirez. Luckily for Marmol the only thing worse than his control right now might be Ramirez’s brain, as he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double representing the tying run.
So instead of runners on the corners with one out Logan Morrison came to the plate with a runner on third base and two outs, and extended the inning with a sharp single to right field to make it 2-1. Quade mercifully took out Marmol and brought in left-hander Sean Marshall to face right-handed slugger Mike Stanton--which tells you he simply wanted Marmol out of the game at all costs--and he wriggled out of the jam and notched the save with a strikeout.
Ultimately the Cubs got the win and Marmol narrowly avoided his MLB-leading eighth blown save thanks to Marshall’s nifty escape, but he clearly doesn’t look right. When he’s on Marmol has perhaps the most overpowering, unhittable stuff in baseball, yet right now he either can’t find the strike zone or is grooving pitches just to avoid walking the ballpark.
Through his first 37 appearances Marmol struck out 52 of the 168 batters he faced, which is a remarkable 31 percent. Counting today, he’s now faced 20 consecutive hitters without a strikeout, walking seven batters during that span.