A 67.50 ERA and three times as many walks as strikeouts wouldn’t normally set a young pitcher up for a postseason roster spot, but Brailyn Marquez isn’t a normal pitcher and this sure as you-know-what isn’t a normal season. Called up for the final game of the regular season and handed a mop in the 8th inning with a 10-1 lead, Marquez showed all the nerves you’d expect from a player pitching above A-ball for the first time.
He walked the first two batters he faced while throwing almost exclusively fastballs with little sense for the zone, then coaxed a groundout before getting AL MVP frontrunner José Abreu swinging with a tantalizing combination of pitches capped off by a high heater at 99.