Marlins Recall Austin Pruitt As They Option Nick Neidert

The Miami Marlins recalled right-hander Austin Pruitt to the side this Friday, with the right-handed Nick Neidert optioned back to Triple-A Jacksonville while right-hander Cody Poteet has been placed on the 60-day injured list.

This will be Pruitt’s second time joining the Marlins this season but the first time since he was designated for assignment and passed through waivers, which will allow him to remain with the organization. The 31-year-old is 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in three games with the Marlins and Houston Astros this season.

Neidert has made seven starts and eight appearances for Miami this term, posting an ERA of 4.54 and going 1-2 in 35 ⅔ innings.

“RHP Nick Neidert optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville,” the Marlins reported on Friday. “Neidert had one bad inning on Thursday night and it proved costly as the Marlins lost to the Reds, 6-1, at Great American Ball Park.”

“Neidert was outstanding through the first three innings, retiring eight of the first nine hitters he faced. But he had a fourth inning he would like to forget, saying after the game that he ran into trouble after failing to get ahead of the Reds’ hitters. He was sent back to the Jumbo Shrimp on Friday after being recalled on Thursday.”

Poteet, meanwhile, has been away with a right knee sprain since June 28 and his required 60-day period on the injured list is set to end next week. The 27-year-old rookie was 2-3 with an ERA of 4.99 in seven starts with the team.

Photo via: Wikimedia Commons

The Marlins lost 3-5 to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night as Sonny Gray hit them over seven scoreless. Gray pitched a one-hit ball through seven scoreless innings as Tyler Naquin and Joey Votto hit homers in the fifth.

He had a 7.22 ERA over the course of his last six starts but found form against the Marlins, needing eight pitches in each of the first two innings before working out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and whiffing Lewis Brinson on three pitches. He retired the Marlins in order in five of his seven innings and departed after throwing 89 pitches and striking five out.

“Maybe as good as he’s been all year,” Reds manager David Bell remarked. “Just in complete command.”

The manager revealed he only sat the player after the seventh in order to give his arm a rest as there’s still a grind ahead this season, which bodes well for fans interested in the MLB Picks.

“Sonny, he’s always going to give you a chance to win,” Naquin added. “Sonny keeps a good pace and just goes out there and pounds the strike zone and gets outs. You give him a little bit of a cushion, and he just gets quicker and gets better as the day goes on.”

Naquin struck a one-out shot in the fifth inning before Elieser Hernandez plunked Nick Castellanos—the latter had an RBI double in the first. Votto would hit the following pitch into the seats for 432 feet. That is after he hit a three-run homer on Thursday and has since taken his total to 28 on the season. Votto has hit 17 homers in the last 29 games.

“He’s locked in,” Bell said of Votto’s performance. “It’s a difficult game, even for Joey, but he’s playing with confidence and freedom. He’s enjoying being at the plate.”

“Joey made us pay again,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s just not missing right now.”

Hernandez struck out Kyle Farmer for the second out in the fifth inning and that would be it for the night. He allowed five runs and five hits through 4 ⅔ innings as the Reds snatched the first two of a four-game set on the back of their losing a series to the Chicago Cubs.

Lucas Sims took to the field for Cincinnati in the eighth but didn’t have as good a performance as he gave up a one-out, three-run homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. before exiting. Mychal Givens threw a scoreless ninth inning for his fourth save and ended it by striking Alex Jackson out.

The game also saw to the end of a streak for the Reds’ Tucker Barnhart, whose franchise-record errorless streak for a catcher came to a halt at 161 games when he was charged with an error in the fourth after calling for catcher’s interference due to Jesus Aguilar’s swing coming into contact with the catcher’s mitt, rewarding him with first base.

While he claims not to have been aware of the streak, he lamented over it coming to an end with suggestions he did nothing wrong.

“It was a good run,” Barnhart said. “It wasn’t something I was really aware of. To have come to an end like that kind of stinks. I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

Barnhart’s previous error came on July 26, 2019.