Feldman shines in spring debut
LAKELAND, Fla. — The first spring training game of Scott Feldman’s Astros career went smoothly Saturday, when the righthander tossed two scoreless innings in a 5-1 loss to the Tigers.
Feldman, signed to a three-year deal this offseason, allowed one hit and one walk.
“It’s a process,” Feldman said. “I worked on everything, threw all my pitches today.”
Feldman in the past has dealt with dead arm early in the spring, but he said he didn’t have that feeling Saturday, reaching 89 mph at times.
Rotation hopeful Brad Peacock allowed all five Tigers runs in the fourth inning on four hits and two walks.
Pitching coach Brent Strom wants Peacock to focus on his changeup, and he told the righthander after the rough outing that he did a good job using it. Hitters can key in on Peacock’s fastball, Strom said.
“I challenged Peacock to throw a lot of changeups and he did, so despite the end results, there were some real positives,” Strom said. “They hit his four-seam fastball pretty hard last year.”
A Brett Wallace groundout scored the Astros’ only run in the sixth inning. After 19-year-old Carlos Correa doubled on a fly ball to center to start the frame, a Max Stassi opposite-field single with one out pushed him to third, bringing up Wallace.
Astros flamethrower Mike Foltynewicz sat at 96-98 mph in his two scoreless innings, allow- ing one hit.
Foltynewicz is being groomed as a starter, but Strom — who hadn’t seen the righthander pitch in a game before Saturday — acknowledged that seeing that kind of heat makes one wonder if Foltynewicz couldn’t help out in relief immediately.
“You read my mind,” Strom said. “I’m watching him; today was my first time ever seeing him pitch competitively. I had heard about him for a (long) time. More than the velocity that I’ve been impressed with is, we’ve been working on a breaking ball that he tried to overthrow in the first inning.
“I talked to Stassi in the second inning, and he threw some really good ones in the last inning. They weren’t strikes, but they were really good. And I think more than just the power, what I really appreciate about this young man is his desire to want to be good. He doesn’t want to be good; he wants to be great.”