Tampa Bay Rays Justin Marks Throws No-Hitter In AAA
The Tampa Bay Rays have struggled as of late, but they had a bright spot in the minors as Justin Marks fired a no hitter for the Durham Bulls.
The Tampa Bay Rays have been horrendous as of late with a record of 3-24 in their last 27 games. The bright side behind all of this is what happened in their Triple-A affiliate’s game last night. Prospect Justin Marks tossed his first career no-hitter while striking out seven for the Triple-A Durham Bulls. Marks threw 130 pitches and walked two in the teams 2-0 win over the Syracuse Chiefs. This is the first no-hitter that the international league has seen in over two years.
Marks, 28, is in his fourth year with the Rays organization after having one lone career appearance with the Kansas City Royals. . He got both runs of support from an error by Chiefs shortstop Adrian Sanchez. With the win, Marks moves to 3-9 on the season with a 3.73 ERA.
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According to MiLB.com, Marks spoke on his performance saying, “I think a lot of it was a combination was mixing all my pitches, I was able to get through the lineup the first time through with primarily fastballs. I knew that once I was able to get through with fastballs the first three innings I knew I would be able to mix up a lot more.I followed Hank Conger’s game plan behind the plate. It was the first time he caught me, but he was really confident in the fingers he was putting down. When it’s working back there, you don’t want to shake off because things are working.”
The left-hander was a 3rd round pick by the Oakland Athletics in the 2009 MLB Draft. Since then, he has been in five different Major League organizations, the A’s, Royals, Rangers, Diamondbacks, and the Rays. The Rays signed Marks to a minor league contract in January of this year.
Marks knows that the performance, even as impressive as it was, has almost no bearing on his future. In a post-game interview with MiLB.com, Marks said, “At this point in my career, I’m just focused on the next game that I can throw, I’m still hungry to get out there and I still want to get back to the big leagues. At this point, I’m taking it game by game. If I can put together a couple of good starts and keep it going from there, I’m all about that. I’d be a fool to say I’m going to live off this start and this is gonna gain me anything. I just have to keep rolling and things work out.”
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The performance will not get Marks a promotion any time soon but was quite an impressive performance. Marks will look to continue his recent success in his next start. While this has no bearing on the Major League team, the performance was a bright side for the team during their current struggles.