Wednesday was my start day so I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to pitch and show the coaches what I had been working on. My curveball and slider are slowly but surely becoming good pitches. I'm so close! I was scheduled to pitch three innings at home against the Yankees again. I was feeling pretty good in the bullpen, curve and slider were tight and had good movement. Of course I wasn't facing anybody so it is kind of easy to pitch and look good. First inning was kind of shaky. First guy lead off with a double. Next batter walk then base hit. Bases loaded no outs, pretty good situation to be in. I calmed down a little and threw a good sinker low and the batter grounded into a double play 4-6-3. Second baseman fielded it, flipped it to shortstop for force out, then threw out runner at first. Two outs, one run has scored so I have avoided the big inning. I still had one runner at third, but he did not score. Batter grounded out to second on a curveball. My offense had my back though scoring four runs giving me the lead. If you are a big baseball follower, one has to know that it is vital to have shut down innings after your offense scores runs for the pitcher. That's just what I did. Three up three down. My best inning I had thrown all extended spring training. First guy struck out, second guy flied out to center, and lastly a strike out looking. The third inning didn't go as good as the second but it wasn't as bad as the first. I got two quick outs then some runners got on but I got out of another jam with a groundball out.
It wasn't the worst outing in the world, but it was an opportunity to take the positives and negatives and get better. I need to slow down when I'm pitching. So my bullpen on Saturday I will have to work on my curve and not being so quick to the plate. Thursday and Friday went by pretty fast. Thursday I was the bat boy when we traveled to the Yankees. Friday I stayed back and was on foul ball duty. My bullpen on Saturday was very productive. I worked out of the stretch to fix not being so quick to the plate. My curve was brutal in the beginning until I eventually found it so I am almost there, having more than two pitches I can throw well and for strikes! I also worked on balance point and getting some power when I'm out of windup. So I worked on that with CY, one of the pitching coaches. I had a pretty productive day. After my bullpen I had a good workout and run, and then watched the rest of the Phillies game because the team was home. That night we went out to dinner for George Carroll's birthday. It was a fun night hanging out with friends and just getting our minds off baseball.
Today was no different from any other Sunday in Dunedin. It is a day of relaxing and catching up on sleep. I laid in bed until four in the afternoon. I had leftover Steak & Shake so I had that for my breakfast/lunch. I decided I had to get up and do something plus I had to pick up something for dinner. I walked over to the mall that's across the street to get something from the food court. I got sidetracked though, I needed new sunglasses since my last pair are now swimming with the fishes in the Atlantic Ocean. I shopped around and found a pair of Ray Bans I enjoyed. As I was making my way to the food court I got distracted again by the Vans store, so I got some new shoes.
Finaly I was starving so I ended up in the food court and got a smoothie and sandwich for my dinner. So this concludes another week in extended spring training. Hopefully my next outing goes well. I pitch Tuesday against the Pirates: three innings again. Thank you for taking the time to read about my week and I am sorry if you clicked on that song and its in your head. If you didn't click it......... Click Me
Our greatest glory is not never falling, but rising every time we fall.
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