No luck for Bender. He’s given up six runs all season and never more than one at a time, yet he’s sporting a 1-4 record and also has two blown saves to go along with a 1.82 ERA. Although he’s been the Marlins’ best reliever, the team prefers using him in the eighth inning, which is when he worked tonight. Calvin Faucher is the favorite for saves in the Marlins pen.

Bender walked Matt Shaw to start the eighth in a tie game and then watched him steal second base. With one out, Kyle Tucker hit a single to left. Shaw was stopping at third, but Kyle Stowers mishandled the ball and Shaw came around to score. Bender then struck out Seiya Suzuki and Pete Crow-Armstrong to ensure that the run would be unearned. With Jesús Tinoco and Calvin Faucher turning in hideous outings this week, we’d say Bender is the current favorite for saves in Miami, even though he obviously wasn’t being held back for a ninth-inning lead today. No one in this group seems worth rostering in shallow leagues right now.

Calvin Faucher was used to get two outs in the eighth. Obviously, there was no save to be had tonight, but Bender, who has yet to allow a run in 3 2/3 innings, does seem to be the Marlins’ preferred option at the moment.

Lefty Anthony Veneziano opened the ninth with Juan Soto coming to bat, but he retired just one of the three batters he faced. Bender entered to face Mark Vientos and got both he and Jesse Winker to end the game and claim the Marlins’ first save of the year. Bender also got a win on Sunday. He’s probably not the Marlins’ sole closer just yet, but we do like him more than Calvin Faucher, who went unused for a second straight day after throwing 47 pitches between Saturday and Sunday.