Marin spins three-hitter for Knights

Terance Marin knows he's had a rough year. But for nine innings Tuesday, he put it all behind him.

The White Sox right-hander threw his first professional shutout, yielding three hits while striking out eight and not issuing a walk in Triple-A Charlotte's 2-0 blanking of Louisville at BB&T Ballpark.

Marin (6-5) faced the minimum through the first seven innings due to three double plays. Six days after tossing six scoreless frames against Gwinnett, the 26-year-old said he again placed his faith in his teammates.

"The big thing was Kevan Smith, my catcher," Marin said. "He knows the hitters. It was me just trusting him and trusting my defense. They made a lot of plays behind me. I was commanding pretty well too. Almost all of my pitches outside of my curveball until that ninth inning."

@KnightsBaseball I just wanna thank @bass_slayer32 & all of my teammates behind me for helping me w/ my 1st pro ball CG shutout! #FreeCheech

- Terance Marin™ (@tero89) August 10, 2016

After working around a one-out double to left field by third-ranked Reds prospect Jesse Winker in the eighth frame, Marin sat three outs away from a shutout.

"I just tried to take some deep breaths and not think about it as much and tried to keep doing what I'd been doing in the earlier innings," he said. "Just keep attacking, don't try and do too much and let the defense work."

The Knights' defense never got the chance in the ninth. Marin reintroduced his curveball after largely ignoring it through the first eight innings and struck out the side -- Juan Perez, Raffy Lopez and Beau Amaral -- to complete the shutout.

"I kept on bouncing it in trying to find it, and then finally in that last inning, I threw some of my best curveballs," the Modesto Junior College product said. "I think I threw at least six of them, and I know two of them were for strikeouts."

Marin admitted this season hasn't always been so easy. Signed as an undrafted free agent by the White Sox in 2010, he posted a 5.67 ERA and 1.55 WHIP over his 20 appearances with Charlotte this year, 10 of them starts. He said the inconsistent schedule was partly to blame.

"I've been starting then relieving, relieving then starting all year," Marin said. "Finally I'm just starting to get a better rhythm knowing that I'm starting and just preparing myself and getting ready physically and mentally.

"To be honest, I struggled a little with it a little early. I was down a little bit. But after a while I just kept going. I had some good outings and some bad outings, but for me I just said, 'All right, wake up. There's always a new day.'"

With that mind-set, Marin has begun to show progress. Since surrendering nine runs over 3 2/3 frames to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on June 7, the California native hasn't allowed a run in any of the four games he started spanning 27 innings.

"Confidence-wise, it's huge," Marin said. "I want to say this is my worst year ever in pro ball statistically, and I know that. It's hard not to think about, but at the end of the day, I can't think about it and I can't just dwell on how I'm doing.

"I'm in this situation for a reason. I can keep telling myself, 'You're here for a reason. You can pitch. You have the stuff. You have what it takes.'"

Smith also chipped in a solo homer in the seventh.

Reds' No. 2 prospect Amir Garrett (2-4) gave up two runs on three hits while fanning seven over seven innings for the Bats.