Garrett has chance to be unlikely hero for Marlins in Game 2

PHILADELPHIA -- With the Marlins’ 2023 season on the line, it won’t be reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, rookie phenom Eury Pérez or high-octane lefty Jesús Luzardo on the mound.

Southpaw Braxton Garrett, who was the odd man out of the Opening Day rotation, will toe the rubber for Game 2 of the best-of-three National League Wild Card Series against the Phillies on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

“I think that he's the right guy for the moment, and I think that he'll step up and get us back on track,” said Luzardo, who took the Game 1 loss. “Garrett's just a grinder, workhorse, has a great head on his shoulder, so I don't think the moment's too big for him. I think he's the right guy for the moment for us.”

A homegrown product selected seventh overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, Garrett won’t overpower opposing batters with velocity like his teammates. Instead, he locates pitches and changes speeds. Garrett boasted the fourth-lowest walk rate (4.4%) among starters with at least 150 innings pitched this season, and he was also one of four starters with a walk rate of 5% or lower to accompany a 45%-plus ground-ball rate (minimum 250 innings).

The 26-year-old Garrett blossomed into Miami’s most consistent starter in 2023, holding opponents to one earned or fewer in 16 starts this season -- second in MLB behind NL Cy Young candidate Blake Snell (17) of the Padres. Garrett almost always kept the Marlins in the game, as evidenced by the club’s 21-10 record in his starts. Miami won both of his starts against Philadelphia, as he gave up three runs across five innings in each of them.

“[Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.]’s always trying to find different ways to get guys better and use their strengths to their advantage and try to get better,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “Brax is not Luzardo. Luzardo's not Brax. Brax is a pitch maker. He can manipulate the ball as good as anybody, develop new pitches during the season. So he's an athlete. When you're able to develop and create different pitches and different spin on the ball during a regular season, that just shows you what kind of athlete Braxton is. Yeah, so he's smart, low heartbeat, gamer though, and he's excited about the opportunity.”

It also helps that Garrett has experienced the lowest of lows, so the pressure shouldn’t affect him.

On May 3, Garrett wore one for the team, surrendering 11 runs on 14 hits in 4 1/3 innings against the Braves. It tied for the second-most runs allowed by a starter in franchise history. Six weekslater, Garrett had transformed into a different pitcher with the help of a new cutter, striking out 13 batters in a 6-4 win over the Pirates on June 22.

Take out that Atlanta start, and Garrett’s season ERA would've dropped from 3.66 to 3.13 -- the seventh lowest in MLB (minimum 150 innings) -- rather than 24th.

Without Alcantara and Pérez, it was Garrett and Luzardo who picked up the slack to push the Marlins into the postseason -- despite blowing past their career highs for starts and innings. Just like Miami's hitters use the motto “pass the baton,” the same could be said for the pitching staff.

“It's awesome,” Garrett said. “This is what I've dreamed of since I was a kid. It's crazy being here, no doubt. I've just worked incredibly hard, and as I mentioned, I made that arm slot change a couple years ago, and I feel like I really took off from there and kind of just built more and more confidence as each season went on.”