Marlins' Fairbanks Opens, Flies Home for Birth
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- Pete Fairbanks opened Sunday's game at Yankee Stadium — his first major league start since 2020 — and departed for a JFK-to-Tampa flight immediately after a 27-pitch first inning in which he surrendered a three-run homer to Ben Rice.
- Manager Clayton McCullough made the call during a breakfast conversation with Fairbanks as a 3-hour, 35-minute rain delay pushed first pitch to 5:10 p.m., framing it as a chance to 'bank an inning' so his closer could 'take off and go enjoy' the birth.
- Chris Paddack, bumped to the bullpen, entered in the third inning and allowed an unearned run on three hits with four strikeouts and four walks over 4⅔ innings, calling the late switch 'a little weird' after an abbreviated pregame routine.
- Fairbanks and his wife Lydia will welcome their third child; the couple's son Isak and daughter Lotte survived, while a daughter, Ellis, was lost at 19 weeks, 6 days during the 2023-24 offseason due to Turner Syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by a missing or partial X chromosome.
- Catcher Liam Hicks gave Fairbanks space after the rough inning: 'I'm sure he wasn't thrilled with how he did... He's not really a guy you want to approach if he didn't do that well.'
- Fairbanks, 32, signed a $13 million, one-year contract with Miami in December after Tampa Bay declined his $11 million team option; he has 92 career saves across eight big-league seasons, including 27 last year.
Why it matters: Miami turned a logistical headache — losing its closer days before his wife went into induced labor — into a roster workaround that kept Fairbanks active, used only 27 pitches, and spared a taxed bullpen. For Fairbanks personally, the moment carries extra weight: he and his wife lost a daughter to Turner Syndrome during the 2023-24 offseason, making this third child's arrival a milestone the box score can't capture.
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