In his return two years in the making, Jeff Brigham seals Miami Marlins win over Pirates

Jeff Brigham had just struck out Greg Allen with a 95.7 mph four-seam fastball for the final out in the Miami Marlins’ 6-5, 10-inning, series-clinching win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday at PNC Park. The pure emotion exuding around Brigham was undeniable as he hopped off the mound and spun around. An expletive or two may have been uttered.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” Brigham said.

Especially since he didn’t know if this moment would come again.

It had been nearly two years since he last stepped on a mound as a Major League Baseball player. He pitched once in the 2020 season, giving up one earned run over an inning of work on July 26, 2020, against the Philadelphia Phillies and wasn’t seen again.

An arm injury — initially diagnosed as a biceps strain before the culprit turned out to really be a dead nerve in his right biceps — kept him off the mound for the rest of the season and had him shut down for all of 2021, as well. He was designated for assignment in October but stayed in the Marlins organization as a minor leaguer.

The path to returning to the big leagues — 19 months without facing hitters, just shy of 24 months between big-league relief appearances — was a grind.

But it made a moment like Sunday worth it.

“I had probably a dozen talks over the last two years with the doctor where it was just like, ‘Baseball is probably not going to be it. We’re gonna work hard, but it’s a good chance that’s not going to happen,’” Brigham said postgame Sunday, holding back tears. “To be able to take the steps and have the people who supported me behind me, it means a lot.”

Now, a quick recap of how Brigham got to the mound in the 10th inning:

The Marlins (45-50), who won two of three against Pittsburgh in this series and won four of seven games overall against the Pirates for the season, had a 4-2 lead entering the bottom of the ninth inning, with Bryan De La Cruz and Jesus Aguilar each logging two RBI — De La Cruz on a solo home run in the fifth inning and an RBI single in the ninth that scored JJ Bleday; Aguilar with a two-run single in the sixth.

Sandy Alcantara held Pittsburgh to two earned runs on two hits and three walks while striking out 10 over six innings. Huascar Brazoban threw a scoreless seventh in his MLB debut and Steven Okert had a perfect eighth inning.

But the Pirates (40-57) tied the game in the ninth against Anthony Bass on a Yoshi Tsutsugo single that scored Allen (single) and Cal Mitchell (two-base error).

The Marlins were without a few of their key relievers — Tanner Scott, Richard Bleier, Dylan Floro and Zach Pop among them — after their usage in Saturday’s 1-0 loss.

After Okert pitched the eighth and Bass the ninth, Marlins manager Don Mattingly was essentially down to either Brigham or Jordan Holloway.

So out of the bullpen came Brigham, who was added to the active roster about 45 minutes prior to first pitch as the Marlins made a series of roster moves to replace infielder Brian Anderson (left shoulder sprain) as well as pitchers Max Meyer (right elbow sprain) and Tommy Nance (right groin strain).

“I didn’t really get the chance to smell the roses too much coming into the game in that situation,” said Brigham, had been with the big-league club on the taxi squad since the series began on Friday after pitching to a 3.96 ERA with 62 strikeouts over 38 2/3 innings with Triple A Jacksonville.

The offense gave him a two-run lead in the top of the 10th on a Nick Fortes RBI single that scored Luke Williams (the automatic runner at second) and a Miguel Rojas RBI single that scored Fortes.

Brigham struck out Michael Chavis on three pitches, capping the at-bat with a low-and-away slider that Chavis swung through, for the first out and then got Ke’Bryan Hayes to fly out to right field for the second out.

A walk to Ben Gamel and a Mitchell RBI single cut the Marlins’ lead to one run and put the winning run on the basepaths.

Brigham got to a 1-2 count against Allen before throwing a ball, watching a pitch get fouled off and then throwing a ball in the dirt to work the count full.

At that point, Brigham knew he just had to execute one pitch.

“Put everything I had behind it,” Brigham said. “Just make sure I can go out with a quality pitch to end the game.”

The pitch: a 95.7 mph four-seam fastball, about waist high and away from the strike zone. Allen whiffed.

And Brigham celebrated, a euphoric moment two years in the making.

“It’s been a long, long process to get back to this point,” Brigham said. “Some unfortunate circumstances the last few days happened to some of the good guys on our team. I’m just hoping to step in.”