Keegan Thompson is aware of over the course of a season a pitcher will get roughed up at instances.
His time got here Tuesday evening at Camden Yards. Thompson’s begin towards the Baltimore Orioles was, remarkably, his first outing in 13 appearances this season wherein he struggled.
It was obvious early Thompson wasn’t fooling the Orioles hitters within the 9-3 loss. He entered the sport having allowed solely three dwelling runs in 54⅓ innings, however the right-hander matched that whole Tuesday.
The Orioles kicked off the underside of the primary with back-to-back dwelling runs by Cedric Mullins and Trey Mancini on consecutive pitches. Jorge Mateo took Thompson deep for a three-run homer within the second.
Thompson exited after giving up seven runs in three innings. He had surrendered a mixed six earned runs in his first 4 begins of the season.
“A lot of pitches to hit, a lot of stuff in the zone — just not a lot of bite to anything,” supervisor David Ross mentioned.
Thompson walked one, struck out one and hit two batters. Afterward he mentioned he simply didn’t possess his typical stuff.
“Kind of work with what you have and try to make some pitches,” he mentioned. “Tonight just didn’t work out for me. We’re going to have those nights every now and then. Not all of them are going to be good. Just got to wash it and move on.”
Thompson’s confidence isn’t wavering after one unhealthy begin. Last 12 months’s struggles to shut the season — a 7.11 ERA over the ultimate six weeks — taught Thompson easy methods to cope with adversity on the big-league stage.
“I mean, I know that’s going to happen and I know I’m still good enough to get guys out,” Thompson mentioned. “So I think going through those struggles last year kind of helped me mentally getting through a night like tonight.”
Thompson thought his stride Tuesday may need been somewhat shorter than regular, maybe inflicting his arm to tug behind him. The small element caught his consideration when he checked out photos of his supply from different outings in contrast with Tuesday’s. Thompson deliberate to look extra into his concept over the following day.
“It’s just looking at either standstill pictures of where my front foot was landing tonight versus other nights and see if that was the problem,” Thompson defined. “It simply regarded somewhat off to me in one of many photos.
“If that’s the case, then I’ll work on that in the bullpen.”
With solely 11 profession big-league begins, Thompson may have been down a few efficiency like Tuesday’s, particularly when there are not any ensures of how lengthy he’ll stay within the rotation.
But Thompson’s self-confidence and perception in his capability are essential attributes at this stage. Riding the highs an excessive amount of and taking the lows too exhausting can derail a participant. Thompson appeared to take the suitable method on his off evening.
Ross wasn’t overreacting to Thompson’s begin both.
“It’s just about going back to the process of looking at the outing, analyzing where things might have (gone) wrong, what could he have done better — I think we could try to look at all those things in that light,” Ross mentioned. “Stay true to his course of; his course of has been fairly darn good this season.
“So, sure, we want to throw it away mentally and forget about the failures, but we also want to try to learn something from it as well.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com