National Post (National Edition)
Buehrle battles through wind, minor-leaguers
Jays starter threw 85 pitches against Pirates’ Class-A
DUNEDIN, FLA. • Mark Buehrle is a notorious soft-tosser, so it figures that a swirling wind might sabotage his usual accuracy.
The weather conditions did not affect his punctuality, however. The quick-working Buehrle was ready to pitch before the umpires made it onto the field. In fact, by the time the last umpire arrived, Buehrle already had finished an inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class-A farmhands.
In defence of the tardy men in blue, the game time had been switched just that morning from 1 p.m. to noon. Buehrle was right on time, however, completing his 5¹/³inning session in little more than an hour.
But the Toronto Blue Jays’ left-hander was a tad frustrated that he could not locate his cutter well, a priority he set for himself before his penultimate outing of the spring.
“Usually I don’t have a problem throwing cutters, and it just seemed like I was missing location a lot more today,” he said. “Hopefully it was because of the wind.”
Otherwise, he had no complaints. He certainly did not object to staying in Dunedin on his start day while manager John Gibbons scraped the bottom of the depth chart for recruits to take on the 2½-hour bus ride to Fort Myers.
Buehrle allowed two runs during his 85-pitch outing. The Pirates prospects did not step out of the box to slow his quick pace and they hit some pitches hard. The wind may have kept a couple in the park.
Afterward, Buehrle said it is not uncommon for minorleague batters to get the jump on a major-league pitcher during a spring game. Why? “I have no idea,” he said. Then he had one. “I think they just see a bigleaguer out there and they’re hacking,” he said. “They’re not patient. They’re swinging early. You see in the big leagues a lot times [that] guys are kind of patient up there and taking pitches. I think they just want to call home to tell their buddies that they got a hit off a certain guy.”
Buehrle was ambivalent about whether to increase or reduce his pitch count for his final spring start Friday in the first of two exhibition games in Philadelphia. He acknowledged that he did tire late in his Sunday session.
“My first reaction now would be to try to get to 100 pitches [Friday],” he said. “That way, just build up a little more strength. But at the same time, maybe cut back and save that extra inning for during the season.”
A discussion with pitching coach Pete Walker and bullpen coach Pat Hentgen will determine his pitch ceiling for Friday’s start.
Whatever the decision, Buehrle said he will be wellprepared for his Blue Jays debut against Cleveland on April 4 at the Rogers Centre.
“Flip the switch, I’ ll be ready,” he said.
On Saturday, Brandon Morrow said the same thing, notwithstanding a laborious fifth inning in which he gave up four runs to the Atlanta Braves. To that point, he had retired 13 of the first 16 batters he faced.
Like Buehrle, Morrow left after 5¹/³ innings. He chose to regard that rocky fifth as a building block.
“There’s going to be innings like that during the year,” Morrow said. “You’re going to have to bear down and if you’re getting tired, trick your body into getting through it — mind over matter kind of thing.”
Morrow could not control his slider in his previous start, but he had it working on Saturday, he said.
“I don’t think I left one up,” he said. “Everything was where I wanted it to be. I worked on it in between [starts], got my hand out a little bit better, controlled my body a little bit better on it, and it was right where I wanted it today.”