Pomeranz said he was amped to be back in a starting rotation: “I was throwing some angry baseballs.” pic.twitter.com/szHOzBrFi8
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 2, 2019
LOS ANGELES – The last time Drew Pomeranz was in the away clubhouse in Dodgers Stadium, he was drenched in champagne, celebrating a World Series victory as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Pomeranz said it’s felt like “a long time” since he was last here, but the southpaw is reveling in the opportunity he has in his new digs.
When asked about how long the celebration was in that visiting clubhouse here was, Pomeranz bit his tongue with a diplomatic answer, before expanding, just a tad.
“It was pretty good,” Pomeranz said, smiling. “It was amazing to walk in here and see how good this place looked the last time I was here.”
Pomeranz debuted for the Giants tonight in an odd outing that both displayed his talent and the things which have held him back. Pomeranz was moved to the Red Sox’s bullpen in the postseason and did not make an appearance after struggling with his mechanics for much of last season.
Tonight, he was forced to throw 44 pitches in the first two innings, largely due to a high number of foul balls, before recovering for a pair of effective innings, followed by two-run fifth inning (from two solo home runs) which he finished with a pair of strikeouts.
His line featured a five-inning performance with six hits, six strikeouts, one walk and two earned runs. It set the Giants up for a four-run comeback that was held intact thanks to four scoreless bullpen innings, manifesting in a 4-2 win in the team’s first game of the season in Los Angeles.
This start was clearly more than a standard regular season start for Pomeranz. He’s back in a rotation and said he threw the hardest he’s thrown in more than a year. His fastballs were often operating in the 93-94 mph range, his occasional cutter was around 89-90 mph, and his curveball was around 80-83 mph, according to MLB.com’s statcast. Out of the 45 fastballs (four- and two-seam) Pomeranz threw tonight, just three were below 90 mph.
He said he might have been too amped, in fact, to be back in the rotation, saying, “I was throwing some angry baseballs.”
According to statcast, his average fastball speed last season was 89.5 mph. 11 of his fastballs were clocked at 93 mph or above tonight, and 40 out of 45 were 90 mph or above. For his career, Pomeranz has generally been around 92 mph, but dipped to 91.8, 91.4 and 89.5 mph fastball averages in the past three seasons, respectively.
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