After stifling the Braves for seven innings and inciting a near-riot for showboating during his home run trot, Miami's phenom pitcher Jose Fernandez shut it down for the season. Or rather, the Marlins ended his 2013 rookie campaign at the 173-inning mark.
Team brass has taken a familiar approach with the 21-year-old following his call-up from Single-A in the final nub of last season. They limited his pitch count by game (he never topped 110 pitches) and his total innings by season.
And nary a peep was heard.
The reaction could hardly have been more dissonant when the Washington Nationals last year wove the same clothes out of the fabric of their young phenom, Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg, at 22, was coming off TJ surgery that had limited him to 44 innings at all levels of baseball in 2011 after 123 frames the previous year split between the Minors and the Majors.
Fernandez accumulated 134 innings on the farm last season. Like Strasburg, he threw roughly an extra 40 innings this year, but without the added stressor of a rebuilt elbow tendon.
The outcry last September seemed to rest on the Nationals' title hopes after securing the best record in baseball. It reached fever pitch when Washington gakked up Game 5 to the Cardinals in the Division Series. Attributing that to the absence of Strasburg is pretty thin gruel, but then baseball fans and logic rarely cohabitate.
Because the team has played a disappointing game of ping-pong with .500 in 2013, few have noticed that the Nationals' can feel vindicated about their decision. Despite a meaningless 7-9 record, he's replicated his spectacular 2012 season, except over more innings. (Again, cause and effect are difficult to pin down; it's possible Stras would have continued his mastery without the benching.)
Perhaps that's what the Marlins had in mind when they emulated Washington and closed the book on Fernandez's season. His absence won't be conspicuous during the playoffs or even during any meaningful games, so no one is in a tizzy. Besides, if all of Miami's baseball fans raised their voices simultaneously in ire they wouldn't make a whole lot of noise.
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