McCullers’ exit no cause for alarm
Righthander’s foot bleeds after hole develops in cleat
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall accompanying manager A.J. Hinch to visit Lance McCullers on the mound is just about the last sight the Astros and their fans wished to see Sunday.
But a sequence that at first glance portended doom quickly revealed itself as the type of odd, seemingly minor issue tailor-made for spring training.
McCullers, the young Astros power righthander beset last year by shoulder and elbow injuries, was pulled one out shy of completing his four-inning Grapefruit League start against the New York Yankees. The reason: His right foot was bleeding through a hole in his cleat.
Officially, McCullers exited
with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth inning of the Astros’ 6-4 loss because of what the team described as “skin irritation on his right foot.” The 23-year-old No. 2 starter had no doubts he would pitch on his next turn in the rotation, which should fall Saturday against the Washington Nationals.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ve got no worries about that.”
As McCullers explained after his 57-pitch outing, he and Yankees starter Adam Warren had settled into the same spot on the mound where dirt meets rubber. The confluence led to a hardening of the patch of dirt where McCullers’ foot rolled over during his delivery on every pitch.
McCullers said he first noticed the makings of a hole in the meshy front area of his cleat around the second inning but that it didn’t “fully rip open” until the fourth. Once it did, his skin was repeatedly exposed to the hardened dirt, which quickly became problematic. He equated it to someone falling on the sidewalk and scraping their knee, “just on my toe and then just over and over again.”
Playing it safe
“I wasn’t like going to die from blood loss out there,” McCullers said. “A.J. just said, ‘(If this were) the regular season, we’d leave you in. But right now we’re just going to get you out.’ ”
McCullers allowed two runs on five hits in the 32⁄3 innings he logged before his exit. Astros pitching coach Brent Strom noticed McCullers’ foot complication during a mound visit after the pitcher issued his second walk of the fourth inning. Strom told Hinch, and after the next batter, Kyle Higashioka, singled to left, the manager took the ball from his starter.
Hinch, who was in the middle of a live television interview on the game broadcast at the time, said he decided to pull McCullers when he noticed the pitcher appearing to favor his right foot. The manager put the Root Sports Southwest headset back on after the pitching change to explain the situation to the TV audience.
“I asked him if his hamstring was all right,” Hinch said later of his mound visit. “At first I thought it was a lower leg issue, but he said, ‘No, my foot.’ And you look down at his shoe, and it was torn, and (there was) a little bit of blood on his sock.
“But he’s fine. I didn’t like walking out there and not knowing what was going on with him. But all should be fine.”
Good outing
Foot oddity aside, the pitcher and Hinch were pleased with McCullers’ outing, which was aided by minor leaguer Dayan Diaz’s strikeout of Tyler Wade to escape the basesloaded jam he inherited in the fourth. The walks McCullers issued the same inning were his first two of the spring, but he balanced them with five strikeouts, giving him 14 over his 82⁄3 Grapefruit League innings.
With his power curveball needing no refinement, McCullers came into Sunday’s start planning to focus on his fastballchange-up combination. He ended up breaking out the curve with runners on base but still came away pleased with his fastball command save for one first-inning heater that resulted in a two-run double by Chase Headley.
“I thought all in all, he did everything he needed to do in this outing to get to the next one,” Hinch said.
Except in the next one, he will require a different pair of cleats.
“If I would’ve gotten that guy out before that single, this wouldn’t even be a topic to discuss,” McCullers said. “No one would know about it. I would go about my business. … I’m going to be fine.”