The Reds salvage their dire pitching situation and beat the Mariners
Michael Mariot is a 34-year-old right-handed pitcher who in 2022 pitched professionally in Taiwan. He opened the 2023 season in Indy ball, posting a 5.06 ERA for the Cleburne Railroaders in Texas.
He signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds in June to be a long reliever in Triple-A, and Mariot’s ERA with the Louisville Bats was 6.93.
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On Monday, he was the Reds’ only option to join the big league roster to log innings for a pitching staff that’s in dire need of help due to injuries and a COVID outbreak. In his first big league game since 2016, Mariot gave the Reds the innings they desperately needed in a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Great American Ball Park.
Mariot was the only pitcher on the Bats who was built up to start who hadn’t already been called up or pitched for the Bats over the weekend. If the Reds didn’t call up Mariot, their only other choices were starters on the Chattanooga Lookouts who didn’t even have much experience in Double-A.
The Reds have already called up Lyon Richardson, who’s on an innings limit and had a pitching plan that wasn’t supposed to end with him in the big leagues. Carson Spiers got called up straight from Double-A. Brett Kennedy started the season in Indy ball but needed to fill another spot in the Reds’ rotation. Prospect Connor Phillips will start on Tuesday even though he pitched poorly in August.
Mariot ended up giving the Reds exactly what they needed, allowing one run while pitching 2 ⅔ innings. With two runners in scoring position in the top of the sixth inning, Mariot struck out former Reds third baseman Eugenio Súarez to get out of the jam.
With the game-tying run at the plate with a three-run lead in the sixth, Mariot made one of the biggest pitches of the game.
On Monday, the Reds’ pitching staff faced its most difficult task of the season. The Mariners have one of the hottest lineups in baseball, and the Reds are running out of pitching. Reds manager David Bell wanted to put Mariot in the best position possible to be successful, so he used three relief pitchers to open the game before bringing in Mariot out of the bullpen.
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Bell’s plan was for reliever Tejay Antone to face the first six batters, reliever Sam Moll to face the next three and then play the rest of the game by ear. Antone and Moll delivered efficient and scoreless performances that changed the entire game for the Reds.
Antone faced the first six batters, but he recorded six straight outs and completed two innings in a game at any level for the first time since 2021. Moll covered a scoreless third inning, and reliever Daniel Duarte allowed one run as he pitched the fourth.
Mariot entered the game after that, and he became the most unlikely contributor to the 2023 Reds.
Mariot let two more runners on base in the seventh inning, and Bell turned to reliever Lucas Sims to get out of that jam. Sims hit the leadoff batter, bringing up center fielder Julio Rodríguez with the bases loaded in a three-run game.
Rodríguez is one of the best players in baseball, and he has been hitting .382 over his last 30 games. Sims, who has provided clutch strikeouts in big moments throughout his Reds career, added one of his most impressive ones by getting Rodríguez to whiff at a fastball.
Then in the ninth inning, with Rodríguez representing the game-tying run, Reds reliever Ian Gibaut got Rodríguez to strikeout looking on a perfectly placed fastball.
Three takeaways from Reds vs. Mariners
1. The Reds offense immediately picked up the pitching staff with run support. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz got the Reds on the board with an RBI single in the first inning, and right fielder Hunter Renfroe scored De La Cruz with another single. The Reds then built a 5-0 lead in the second inning with a home run by second baseman Spencer Steer.
2. Steer became the first Reds hitter to reach 20 home runs this season. He entered Monday’s game with a .811 OPS, and Steer continued to build his case as the team MVP for 2023.
3. De La Cruz made another incredible play that showed his special set of tools. When Steer booted a ground ball up the middle, De La Cruz stayed with the play, picked up the ball off the ground and threw a rocket to first base that arrived just in time. De La Cruz has the best infield arm in baseball, and he needed all of it to get this groundout.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The Reds salvage their dire pitching situation and beat the Mariners
