BRADENTON, Fla. -- Despite a rough ending to his day, Quinn Priester chose to emphasize the bright spots in his performance against the Phillies Sunday at LECOM Park.
The box score shows that he gave up five runs, including a fourth-inning grand slam to Kody Clemens, in his third appearance and second start of the spring. But what stood out to Priester was his ability to get ahead in the count and attack hitters through his first three innings of work in a 9-7 setback.
“I thought the first three were great. Obviously, the last one needed to be better,” Priester said. “I thought I did an amazing job of getting ahead of guys through those first three innings, staying on the attack, and just started to fall behind a little bit in the fourth. Things got away from me a little bit. Just need to be better in the zone in that fourth like I was in the first three and we’re gonna have no issues.”
A candidate for one of the two remaining spots in the Pirates' opening day rotation, Priester retired the first seven batters he faced and needed just 20 pitches to get through the first two innings. Those frames were just a continuation of what Priester was able to do over his first two outings when he allowed just one run on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts through four collective innings.
In the third, he surrendered a pair of singles and a run on a fielder’s choice that nearly ended in an inning-ending double play. But then came trouble in the fourth. Priester allowed a single to Darick Hall, hit Edmundo Sosa with a pitch he appeared to lean into and gave up another single to Jake Cave to load the bases. That’s when Clemens, ahead in the count 2-0, proceeded to unload the bases with one swing of the bat, turning a superb outing into one clouded by a 92.7 mph fastball thrown right down the middle.
"He was really good for three innings, and then I think the hit by pitch sped him up a little bit,” Derek Shelton said. “Those are the transitions that major-league starters have to make to be able to control the damage. He gets behind 2-0 to Clemens. It's more the run versus rally. He's got to give up a run to stay away from the rally there. Thankfully, it's spring training and it's a growing moment, a teaching moment that we're going to be able to use. But for three innings, he was really sharp."
Priester also acknowledged the importance of having a short memory after something doesn’t go your way.
“Certainly if there’s a different result it would have changed things, but it’s good practice for not worrying about that crap because you can’t control it,” Priester said. “When I see the reaction of teammates having my back in those situations, it’s all the information I need in that, ‘Oh yeah, I probably got screwed there, but so what? We still need to win this game.’ I just need to do a better job, after the hit by pitch, of refocusing.”
Priester showed pride in the way he mixed pitches early, especially when he found favorable results against the game's first seven batters. With his slider (20 times) and sinker (12) at the forefront of his usage, Priester induced three groundouts and a lineout, while striking out three batters. He struck out Hall on three pitches, including a 95.8 mph fastball, before getting Clemens on a changeup and Rodolfo Castro on a curveball that ended another brief three-pitch at-bat. Priester generated 10 whiffs and threw 35 of his 58 pitches for strikes.
“We’re gonna watch the first three and we’re gonna really enjoy the pitches, even the misses in the first three were close and competitive. I thought they were really thrown well," Priester said. "The slider is extremely fun to throw and compete with. I just liked how we mixed in those first three innings. Just need to continue that trend and continue that mindset into the fourth, and obviously when we get deeper into the season, too, the fourth, fifth and sixth. That’s gonna be where I succeed or I don’t.”
