McCann tosses away bat, homers with replacement
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Brian McCann lost a bat and hit a home run during the same first-inning plate appearance in Wednesday’s 8-2 Astros victory over the Washington Nationals at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.
Facing righty A.J. Cole, McCann swung through a pitch and flung his bat into the first row behind the Nationals’ dugout.
No one was hurt. The fan closest to the errant bat appeared to say: “That was this close,” and held his thumb and index finger about an inch apart.
After McCann got a new bat, he hit a deep fly to right field. The ball hung long enough for Bryce Harper to patiently time his leap in an attempt to catch the ball near the top of the outfield wall. Harper jumped, and the ball rattled out of his glove and over the wall for McCann’s second home run of the spring.
McCann also singled and doubled as part of a 3-for-3 day.
Four reassigned to minors camp
The Astros cut their major league camp roster to 49 players, reassigning righthander Brady Rodgers, lefthanders Ashur Tolliver and Reymin Guduan, and outfielder Andrew Aplin to minor league camp.
Rodgers’ 2016 success in Class AAA, where he was given the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of Year Award, has not carried over to major league competition.
Rodgers, a Richmond native and Lamar Consolidated alumnus, gave up 14 earned runs in 81⁄3 innings with the Astros last year.
This spring, he surrendered nine earned runs in eight innings, with a 1.88 WHIP.
McCullers glad to have had a test
Lance McCullers did not mind being in a bind against the Mets on Tuesday. It tested his abilities to pitch out of trouble.
He stranded two runners in the first inning but gave up a home run in his third, and final, inning of the outing.
He said his second Grapefruit League start will make him “a better pitcher moving forward versus last time, where I just cruised through it. I was throwing to a tight area up there and a lot of guys on base sometimes. Had to make some big pitches … so I take a lot from that.”
With runners on the corners and one out in the first, McCullers, the presumptive No. 2 starter, struck out the next two lefthanded batters.
Later, McCullers hung a changeup — which to that point had been superb — to Yoenis Cespedes, and the All-Star slugger launched it deep to left field for a two-run homer.
McCullers said manager A.J. Hinch was going to take him out after the Cespedes blast.
“I kind of looked at (Hinch) and told him I was feeling good and to let me go at that last batter,” McCullers said.
McCullers then struck out Neil Walker with a curveball that dove toward the lefty’s back foot.
McCullers required 60 pitches (38 of which were strikes) to get through the game. He needed only 24 pitches in the two innings of his first start.
“Not all games are going to go to script,” he said. “I’m not going to be able to finish each inning with 12 pitches every time, so I’m going to have to work through that, get the pitch count back up. But I felt really good.”
Exit Bagwell, enter Biggio
Hall of Famer to-be Jeff Bagwell finished his five-day stint as a special instructor at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on Wednesday, according to manager A.J. Hinch. Craig Biggio, the franchise’s other iconic position player, will roll in as an instructor Thursday and devote a week to pitching in.
“I don’t like to come down until the minor league games start,” Biggio said. “I can see ground balls, fly balls every day of the week. I want to see these kids play. I want to sit in the dugout with them. I want to talk to them if they’ve got any questions.”
The most bromatic moment from spring training came when Biggio visited the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches shortly after Bagwell began instructing last Saturday. The Killer B’s hung out in the Astros dugout during a game against the Miami Marlins.
Bagwell and Biggio are tied together in any conversation about either of their celebrated careers. Although Biggio did not remember the last time they had shared a dugout, it wound up feeling like they never had left one.
When a catcher scrambled from behind the plate to catch a high popup, Biggio said to Bagwell: “You would have had no part of that.”
Bagwell did not like to battle the wind on popups. He preferred the environment indoors.
“No, I only would’ve caught it in the Astrodome,” he replied.
“It’s just the little things,” Biggio said of rekindling with Bagwell. “The way baseball guys are, you may not see each other for, hypothetically, 10 years or so, and then after 10 minutes, you’re all caught up again. Baseball players have amazing relationships — they really do.”
Although sunglasses shielded his eyes, Biggio’s smile beamed when he reminisced about leading Houston to its first World Series in 2005, with Bagwell by his side. He focused in on a hug they shared after beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series to advance.
“Able to get in a little bro hug right there like, man, this is like everything we ever talked about,” Biggio said. “It was a hug of two guys just really like dedicating their whole lives to a city. He came from Connecticut, I came from New York, and the only thing that we ever wanted to do was to get to the World Series. And to finally be able to get there, that was a sentimental moment.”
Odds and ends
Jon Kemmer reached base Wednesday in all four of his plate appearances, including a three-run homer that highlighted the Astros’ five-run third. He also singled and drew a pair of walks. … After struggling in a couple previous outings, Tony Sipp threw a scoreless fifth inning against the Nats, allowing only a walk.