It’s perhaps a bit extreme to connect this week’s Major League debut of Anthony Bender with the lack of dominance from a Marlins closer, but we all handle #BenderMania in different ways.
In his effective debut, Bender regularly hit 97 with a sinker, generated whiffs with his slider and dialed it up to 98 to end a long at-bat. The 20th round draft pick showed Major League Baseball his talent at 26 years of age and shut out the Diamondbacks for an inning, allowing a single while recording the first two strikeouts of his career.