MIAMI — The Cubs looked to be cruising to a 2-0 record and another nice day under the sun in South Florida.
They took some good swings in the first few innings, including a solo homer from Kris Bryant in the third. Kyle Hendricks looked a little rusty — as three walks indicated — but was otherwise his standard self, limiting hard contact and keeping hitters off-balance.
Proof:
But the easy night turned into a nightmare as the Cubs' bats suddenly went MIA and they couldn't add on. Starlin Castro's RBI single in the third inning was enough to keep the Marlins even for more than three hours.
In the bottom of the 17th, the Marlins finally — mercifully — ended the game on Miguel Rojas' walk-off single to score Brian Anderson, saddling poor Eddie Butler with the loss.
Here's all the wackiness from throughout the evening:
—This will forever be known as the Eddie Butler Game.
When the Cubs needed a hero, he stepped up:
When this week started, Butler didn't even know if he'd make the Cubs' Opening Day roster. Instead, he was thrust into action in just the second game of the season, tossed seven innings of baseball, saved the bullpen, gave his team a chance to win over and over again and even drew a walk in his second plate appearance.
And for all that, he was rewarded with a loss, showing how broken baseball's system of handing out wins and losses is.
MLB
But Butler certainly made an impact on his teammates and the Cubs fan base.
"That was such a huge effort, especially this early in the year, when starters aren't going that deep," said Hendricks. "What he did coming out of that bullpen tonight, it was awesome."
Butler said he knew he was in it for the long haul from the first second he took the ball.
"This is exactly what I've been wanting to do," he said. "I'm here to help this team win. Today was going seven innings out of the 'pen. It helped save our bullpen and there are some guys that are going to be fresh tomorrow, so we're not in a similar situation with that."
—518 pitches were thrown, with both teams tossing exactly 259 pitches.
—The teams combined to use 13 pitchers.
Some guy named Jarlin Garcia threw five perfect innings of relief for the Marlins before allowing the Cubs to load the bases in his sixth inning of work. He escaped without allowing a run.
Odrisamer Despaigne — who was slated to start Sunday — pitched an inning and got the win for the Marlins.
—When Butler entered the game with two outs in the 10th, Maddon emptied his bench with a series of dizzying moves:
*Victor Caratini came in to catch.
*That moved Willson Contreras to left field...
*Which moved Ben Zobrist to second base...
*Which moved Javy Baez to shortstop...
*Which moved Addison Russell to the bench...with Butler hitting in Russell's spot, who made the last out in the top of the 10th.
—Contreras and Rizzo had some fun with each other, after the Cubs catcher rifled a ball 140 mph (note: not an actual radar reading) at Rizzo on a cut-and-dry play:
Come for the Rizzo-Contreras fun, but stay for Mike Montgomery's bewildered look as he tries to figure out what the hell is going on.
—The teams combined for 34 strikeouts and 16 walks.
The Cubs struck out 20 times themselves, much to Maddon's chagrin.
"Just a really well-pitched game on both sides, but obviously we gotta do better than 19 or 20 punch-outs."
—This was the longest game (by innings) ever in the history of Marlins Park.
—The game took five hours and 18 minutes to complete.
—There were 33 men left on base in the contest, including 18 from the Marlins and 15 from the Cubs.
—Butler set a new career high in innings pitched and now actually leads the Cubs staff in outs recorded to start 2018.
—The new extra inning rule put in place for minor-league baseball includes throwing a runner on second base to start each new inning of free baseball.
Maddon is a self-proclaimed traditionalist who doesn't want to see the game tinkered with in that way, but even he admitted early Saturday morning that the rule would be awfully nice right now for either manager with a completely drained bullpen.
As for Saturday's game, Maddon wasn't sure which pitchers would be available to throw from the Cubs bullpen, but they were hoping for at least 100 solid pitches from Yu Darvish in his team debut.
Catch all the action Saturday on NBC Sports Chicago with coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m.