Left-hander Matt Marksberry is the first member of the Braves’ 2013 draft class to make it to the majors. He’s hardly the first young pitcher to have an impressive streak interrupted by a bad outing.
The Rays tagged Marksberry for five runs in 2/3 innings Wednesday. Three of the runs were unearned, but they came after Marksberry committed a fielding error while covering first base.
Marksberry didn’t make an appearance in the next game, Friday against the Diamondbacks, but manager Fredi Gonzalez said he’ll call on Marksberry when needed.
“Some of the stuff you see, we can fix.” Gonzalez said. “But I think the biggest thing is you keep running him out there.”
The Rays had three consecutive hits before Marksberry he recorded an out. The go-ahead run scored when Marksberry stepped over the first-base bag.
“I look back on it as a learning experience,” Marksberry said. “There’s definitely some things I need to work on. I was really frustrated with myself because I’m a lot better than I performed. The only thing positive I can take out of it is I wasn’t wild, I wasn’t walking people. I was just getting hit. I can live with getting hit compared to walking people.”
Until the rough outing at Tampa Bay, Marksberry had been one of the many Braves call-ups to have success out of the bullpen in their first major-league stint. When Marksberry allowed a run against the Marlins on Sunday, it ended a streak of five consecutive scoreless appearances since the Braves promoted him from Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Braves selected Marksberry, 24, in the 15th round of the 2013 draft out of Campbell University if North Carolina. He began this season at high single-A Carolina and pitched 11 games for Gwinnett before getting promoted.
“The only word I can use to describe it is ‘whirlwind,’ he said. “It’s been great experience, a very humbling experience. I’m very fortunate for the Braves organization to give me a shot and believing in me enough to send me up here, especially in a rebuilding process. It’s good to know I might be a future piece.”
