Outing doesn’t help Peacock’s chances of making roster
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Astros righthander Brad Peacock, a roster long shot who is out of minor league options, was knocked around Thursday by the Washington Nationals.
Peacock allowed five runs and five hits in three innings, which he needed 66 pitches to complete. Jayson Werth barreled up a hanging curveball and drove it off the leftfield foul pole for a threerun homer in a four-run first inning for the Nats, who beat the Astros 13-1.
“The off-speed’s not there right now,” Peacock said. “Once the arm strength comes back, I think I’ll be fine. … The slider’s just not hard right now, and it’s moving a little too slurvy, I guess, and they’re picking it up. I think most of the hits I gave up were on the offspeed today. It just wasn’t very good.”
In the third inning, Peacock gave up a second homer, this one on a changeup, to Anthony Rendon. The ball bounced off the glove of left fielder Jake Marisnick and over the wall.
Peacock’s best chance to make the Astros would be in long relief. If he doesn’t make the team, he would have to pass through waivers unclaimed to stay with the Astros at the Class AAA level.
Sipp working to hone 2-seamer
Astros reliever Tony Sipp exited his appearance in Thursday’s Grapefruit League game with two outs and the bases loaded, a scenario that would typically leave a pitcher frustrated.
But in this case, Sipp wasn’t disappointed. The veteran said he used the outing as a means to work on his two-seam fastball, a pitch he implemented this spring with the idea it would give him another weapon against lefthanded hitters.
“I’m trying to get a feel for it,” he said. “I’m not making excuses, but still (I’m) working on stuff. I’m not disappointed with the outing.”
The Astros are relying on a bounce-back season from Sipp, who will likely be the only lefthander in their bullpen to begin the season. In his careerworst 2016, lefthanded batters had an .894 OPS against him.
In the fourth inning Thursday against the Nationals, Sipp needed just five pitches to dispatch his first two batters on weak grounders in front of the mound. He broke Clint Robinson’s bat on a two-seamer and got Trea Turner on a splitter.
Sipp then jumped ahead 0-2 against Adam Eaton before the Nats’ new center fielder ran the count full. Eaton connected on a splitter, lifting it to right field and just over the reach of Josh Reddick for a triple.
Sipp followed that up by walking Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper before manager A.J. Hinch summoned righthander Cy Sneed to face the righthanded-hitting An- thony Rendon. Sipp said all but one of the fastballs he threw Thursday were two-seamers.
“My four-seam doesn’t move a whole lot. I got away with just being a four-seam-slider guy early on (in my career) because it had a lot of life,” he said. “So (I’m) just making adjustments.”
Sipp’s walks of Murphy and Harper were two of eight free passes issued by Astros pitchers on Thursday.
“Obviously, the priority (in spring training) for the guys that already have a job with us is to subtly tweak a few things to try to get them better,” Hinch said. “I mean, sometimes that does cost you in the game, and that’s OK.
“But execution of the pitch is still going to be key inside the strike zone, and I think that obviously, the walks (from) a couple pitchers are things that we don’t want to see, regardless of what you’re working on.”