Andrew Heaney will make one start for Marlins before end of 2014 season

The Miami Marlins are going to give Andrew Heaney one more chance before the 2014 season expires.

The Marlins are planning on starting Heaney in the second game of Friday's day-night doubleheader against the Washington Nationals. Jarred Cosart is slated to make the first start, and Heaney will take the 7:05 PM start.

Manager Mike Redmond is happy to send Heaney out before the season ends and get him some extra work.

"He's done a good job," Miami manager Mike Redmond said. "I think it's the right time in the last couple games of the season to get him in there, especially having a doubleheader. It worked that the last time that he pitched was the three innings. He's available for that day. We'll let him go out there and let him pitch and get a start."

Since Heaney's promotion, he has worked twice out of the bullpen and pitched admirably. In 4 2/3 innings, he has thrown four strikeouts versus no walks and two hits allowed. That kind of work has bumped up the confidence level for the Marlins' coaching staff, and Heaney will look to try and impress in his final outing of the season.

Before the promotion, Heaney had thrown 20 1/3 innings as a starter, but struggled to a 6.53 ERA and 6.17 FIP. Heaney's issues had a lot to do with the four homers he allowed in those innings, but he also displayed a surprising lack of command and control over his fastball. This played in a role in his struggles and was one of the things he could improve upon in his second stint with Miami.

Heaney's slider was working well, and it should be interesting to see if it continues to be a dominant strikeout pitch. In Heaney's first three starts before a disastrous stint against the St. Louis Cardinals, he struck out 12 hitters in 17 innings pitched with a rate of 17.9 percent.

Heaney earned a chance to come back and pitch in the bigs. He posted a 3.87 ERA and 3.89 FIP with a 26 percent strikeout rate in 83 innings in Triple-A New Orleans. In the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that represented an ERA 16 percent better than league average.

Stay tuned to Fish Stripes for more details on Heaney's final start of 2014.