{"id":90655,"date":"2025-06-09T10:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T10:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/90655\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T10:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T10:44:12","slug":"gibson-channels-deep-rooted-competitive-nature-in-first-win-marlins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/90655\/","title":{"rendered":"Gibson channels deep-rooted competitive nature in first win – Marlins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTAMPA\u2014The Rays faithful were bringing it.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBehind a five-homer effort from their offense and a four-run comeback two innings prior, Tampa Bay had all the momentum entering the bottom of the ninth in a 10-10, exhilarating ballgame<\/a> against their state-mates.\u00a0A sellout crowd of 10,046 at George M. Steinbrenner Field took to their feet, waving baby blue Evan Longoria giveaway shirts as rally towels while “Let’s Go Rays” chants echoed throughout the stadium. If you closed your eyes and just listened, it\u2019d be difficult to believe that Saturday afternoon\u2019s game between the Rays and visiting Marlins was in a minor league ballpark.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDesperately needing outs with two elite bats looming in Jonathan Aranda<\/a> and Junior Caminero<\/a> and his team in the midst of a draining five-game swoon, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough\u00a0put his faith in southpaw Cade Gibson<\/a>, who entered the bout with only nine major league appearances under his belt.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Cade has thrown the ball extremely well to this point. He’s been up here and been in some tough spots, and it doesn’t faze him,” McCullough proclaimed postgame when asked of his decision to go with the lesser-experienced Gibson. “He throws strikes. You knew he was gonna go out there and pound the zone.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIf anything, the raucous mob in the stands aided the rookie rather than fluster him.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“[During the game] I was like, \u2018this crowd’s electric right now,\u2019\u201d Gibson told Fish On First postgame. \u201cWhen you’re in the industry of this and being a competitor, you want the ball in that situation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tChanneling his competitive mindset, Gibson displayed incredible maturity and composure in the ninth (and eventual tenth).\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing a 1-2-3, six-pitch first frame that moderately muted fans, fellow rookie Heriberto Hern\u00e1ndez provided Gibson with a one-run lead heading into extra innings. Two sensational plays<\/a> up the middle from Xavier Edwards later, Gibson was chasing just a single out to secure his first big league victory.\u00a0A swinging strikeout of Josh Lowe provoked a passionate scream and fist pump from the Ruston, Louisiana native.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love it. That gives me confidence to go out there and execute,\u201d a grateful Gibson said when asked what it meant to get the nod from his skipper. \u201cI fully trust in my arsenal to get the job done\u2026I’m grateful for the opportunity and that they trusted me in that moment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tFor Gibson, that fierce state of mind has been ingrained from his time at Louisiana Tech, where he attended from 2021-22, succeeding a two-year stint at NAIA LSU-Shreveport.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn’t have any siblings growing up, so I didn’t get to compete with anybody like that. But I’ve just kind of had it my whole life. I just love being in the arena and getting after it,\u201d said Gibson with a smirk. \u201cI think at Louisiana Tech, my coaching staff there, they really instilled it in me. They’re just fiery competitors. They want to win at all costs. They’re kind of old school in the way that they don’t look at the numbers as much. They just want to win the ballgame. However you do it, it doesn’t matter. Just go win.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\"convert.webp\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his redshirt senior year back home in northern Louisiana, Gibson garnered second-team All-Conference USA honors following a 93\/19 K\/BB, 4.87 ERA campaign as a weekend starter. Miami\u2019s front office was impressed enough to select Gibson with the 292nd pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ex-Bulldog\u2019s passionate way of playing the game has led to extraordinary success thus far in the bigs.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWith his first win now under his belt plus another scoreless inning on Sunday, Gibson boasts a minuscule 1.00 ERA in 11 outings since his late April call-up. That mark is the lowest among all 21 Marlins pitchers who have appeared in a game this season. Even in a small sample, it’s a stunning development for somebody who wasn’t even invited to big league spring training this year.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tGibson specifically credited the assistance he has received from Marlins coaches on his offspeed offerings.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I needed to evacuate the zone, need to get it down\u2014whether it be a curveball or sweeper\u2014I need to get it off, or a fastball, I needed to get above the zone,” remembered Gibson. “So, I just think it’s just knowing where to put the pitches in certain situations that they’ve really honed in on.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAs McCullough continues his closer-by-committee approach, Gibson\u2019s appearances by inning will likely continue to vary. However, the young left-hander\u2019s recent outing confirmed that, no matter what situation, what opponent or what ballpark it\u2019s in, he will be as fearless and cutthroat as any arm coming out of his ‘pen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA\u2014The Rays faithful were bringing it. Behind a five-homer effort from their offense and a four-run comeback two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,16506,1816,778,58,4171,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-90655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cade-gibson","10":"tag-marlins","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-marlins","13":"tag-miamimarlins","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114653001404899618","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}