Painfully familiar storyline for Priester after latest promotion

Sliding in to a starting rotation spot vacated by the injured Marco Gonzales, a familiar face took the mound for the Pirates Friday night and found himself experiencing problems similar to the ones that plagued him during a short stint in the big leagues last season. 

Newly-recalled Quinn Priester made his season debut against the Red Sox at PNC Park and, like he did through eight of his 10 major-league appearances a year ago, he struggled to keep the ball in the ballpark by allowing three home runs to continue the recurring theme in an 8-1 loss.

Priester, who surrendered 12 long balls in 50 innings last season, gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He allowed a pair of first-inning homers to Wilyer Abreu and Triston Casas before serving up a two-run shot to Rob Refsnyder that ended his day with one out in the fifth inning. 

In the eyes of Derek Shelton, Priester's woes stemmed from an inability to get ahead in counts and a lack of pitch execution. 

"It's very simple. If you put the ball on the plate and you're in positive counts, you have the ability to execute pitches and expand the zone," Shelton said. "When you're behind in the count, you have to come on the plate. In the big leagues when you come on the plate, you're gonna get hit and that's what happened today." 

Priester, who had recorded a 3.95 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP in three starts at Class AAA Indianapolis prior to re-joining the big-league club, agreed that his execution simply wasn't good enough. 

"Certainly some of the sinkers just getting left out over, and just a little bit of getting the pitch where I want it to go," Priester said. "Execution just needs to get a little bit crisper."

Priester struggled to get ahead of opposing hitters throughout the night. He delivered first-pitch strikes to 10 of the 21 batters he faced, putting himself in consistent situations where he was forced to battle back. He allowed three hits, including the solo shot to Casas, and walked one when throwing first-pitch balls out of the zone. 

"I don't even think he was 50 percent on first-pitch strikes so we were pitching behind the whole game," Shelton said. "You cannot pitch behind in the big leagues, and I think we saw that tonight." 

Priester showed a tendency and a desire to throw his slider often during spring training, but he admitted to not having much of a feel for it against Boston. He turned to it only nine times out of the 86 pitches that he threw and, instead, relied heavily on a 37% usage of his sinker and a 23% utilization of the curveball. He went to his changeup and fastball 13 times apiece. Priester only generated nine swinging strikes and benefitted from nine called strikes, while opposing hitters consistently made contact, whether it be in the form of hard-hit outs or base hits, four of which went for extra bases. 

The mistakes Priester made on the three home runs allowed came on a slider, a sinker and a changeup, three pitches he failed to execute. 

First, he threw a 2-2 slider on the inner third to the left-handed Abreu, who sent it well over the Clemente Wall for a 1-0 Red Sox lead: 

A 413-foot opposite-field bomb by Casas followed, as Priester left a 1-0 sinker over the heart of the plate: 

Priester allowed a pair of hits, including a double to Bobby Dalbec, in the second before an error on his part and a fielder's choice by Ceddanne Rafaela plated the third run. 

He managed to come away unscathed in the third and fourth innings, but a single by Abreu was followed by a first-pitch changeup thrown on the outer third to Refsnyder. He didn't miss, going the opposite way for a homer that just made it over the wall in right-center field: 

Adjustments will have to be made by Priester if he hopes to experience some success during this stint with the Pirates. In the 10 appearances and eight starts he made last year, he wasn't very effective, sporting a 7.74 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP. He ran into issues with 27 walks, something he didn't struggle much with in this particular outing, while opposing hitters managed to accumulate a .290 batting average against him. 

"Normally, just like to sit and digest these things after one we look to improve on, find things to get better on," Priester said. "My kneejerk reaction might not always be what's right. Right now, I just want to collect my thoughts and create a plan before we get out there tomorrow and keep working."

While Priester struggled on one side, Boston starter Brayan Bello was nearly un-hittable through six scoreless innings. He surrendered a second-inning double to Jack Suwinski, walked Bryan Reynolds twice and struck out seven to help limit a woeful Pirates offense that totaled four hits and scored just one run for the third consecutive game.