Smyly struggles in second outing

Left-hander sees some positive signs despite yielding 5 runs, 8 hits.

After an impressive showing in his spring debut, Braves starter Drew Smyly never found his footing in his second appearance. The lefty allowed five runs on eight hits across two innings in the Braves’ 10-1 loss to the Pirates on Tuesday.

Smyly was OK with his day despite the results. Spring training, of course, is much more about process than results.

“Every game in spring training, and regular season, I just try to pinpoint the good things that were happening and how I can improve on the bad things,” said Smyly, an offseason acquisition. “The good things were my grip, how crisp and sharp my pitches were, that was a big improvement (over the first start). Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t the same. I didn’t do a good job getting first-pitch strikes and didn’t do a good job finishing guys when I had two strikes.”

The first two Pirates reached base to begin the game, but Smyly struck out three consecutive batters to complete a scoreless first. He didn’t recover so smoothly in the next frame. He walked Phillip Evans and surrendered a sin

gle to Erik Gonzalez. Left fielder Marcell Ozuna overran the ball, resulting in an error that put runners at second and third.

The next three Pirates singled, which built a 3-0 lead. The team rolled the inning before three outs were recorded. Smyly faced only two batters in the ensuing inning, giving up consecutive doubles to Ke’bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds.

While it certainly wasn’t the overall showing Smyly wanted, there’s little reason to be concerned. As Smyly noted, he was “singled to death” and didn’t give up much hard contact. He said he needs to do a better job staying in pitcher-friendly counts.

“Obviously as a competitor you get frustrated when you’re not getting outs and you’re giving up hits,” Smyly said. “It’s not fun. But you know the big picture, these games don’t count. They’re just to get your pitch count up and get in a rhythm. It’s nice to have long innings honestly, even though it’s not the results you want, just to get that bulk in. In the regular season if you get to that point, you’ve already been there and done it in spring training. That’s a quality point to take out of it.”

COURTESY Left-hander Drew Smyly, at spring training with Bryce Wilson and Touki Toussaint, never found his footing in his second appearance after an impressive showing in his spring debut for the Braves.