Rookie Valente Bellozo delivers strong performance in the Marlins’ 6-4 win over Reds

With the Miami Marlins (43-72) entering Wednesday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds (55-59) well out of the playoff picture, the rest of the 2024 season will be about identifying the building blocks for the future.

Now, after a couple of shaky starts earlier in the year, starting pitcher Valente Bellozo is beginning to punch his ticket on next year’s roster.

After a five inning outing where he allowed just two earned runs against the Braves, who currently hold the last Wild Card spot, on Friday, Bellozo followed up with 5.2 shutout innings during the Marlins’ 6-4 victory over the Reds on Wednesday.

Bellozo didn’t deliver this performance with swing-and-miss stuff. The Mexican-born pitcher had just four strikeouts on the night and there were many times his fastball didn’t reach 90 miles per hour. Instead, Bellozo induced fly balls to secure outs, a skill that has become less valued throughout the MLB in favor of strikeouts.

“Well he doesn’t have much velocity, but his pitch shapes are really good,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “On all his secondary stuff, the shaping is really good.”

Bellozo also said after the game that he has worked on tunneling his pitches in the past, which has allowed him to keep hitters off-balance.

The 24-year old pitcher’s barrel rate was recorded at 5.6 percent during Wednesday’s game, down from his 9.1 percent during Friday’s game against the Braves.

“The goal of pitching is to miss bats and miss barrels,” Schumaker said. “And he is missing barrels at a really good percentage.”

Schumaker attributes part of Bellozo’s success to the mindset the young pitcher has on the mound.

“I don’t think he cares who it is [on deck],” Schumaker said. “The elite pitchers don’t care who is in the box. They’re on the attack and they go.”

“You see him out there, and you know, he thinks he’s Max Scherzer.”

Bellozo told reporters after the game that he has been visiting a psychologist for a year-and-a-half, which has prepared him to pitch in big games.

“[We have talked about] right now only keeping my mind on positive thoughts,” Bellozo said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes you throw your best pitch and sometimes you get sent out [of the game]. [I try to] enjoy the game and have fun [and] embrace every sensation and every moment.”

Bellozo has now pitched against the Royals, Reds, Braves and Red Sox, which are some of the best lineups in the majors. While the results weren’t great against Boston, the 24-year old pitcher has demonstrated why he was called up during his past two outings.

With other pitchers like Max Meyer, Roddery Munoz and Edward Cabrera being shaky at best this season, Bellozo’s last two performances could see him vault in the eyes of Peter Bendix, the Marlins President of Baseball Operations.

“The kid works. He knows the metrics [and] when he came up in Houston, they broke it down for him right away,” Schumaker said. “He knows exactly what his strengths and weaknesses are. He’s not a chucker by any means, but I do think the pitch shaping is pretty elite because the velocity is 88 to 90 and he’s missing barrels.”