When Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Scott Kazmir walked Juan Pierre on four pitches to start yesterday’s spring training game with the Chicago White Sox in Tempe, AZ, the 5,100 fans in attendance at Temple Diablo Stadium were probably thinking, “Oh, great, another stinker of a year from Kazmir.”
However, Kazmir settled down and pitched three strong innings for the Angels, giving up just two hits and the lone walk to Pierre, striking out one and throwing 24 of 41 pitches for strikes.
The game between the Angels and White Sox featured two comebacks of sorts: Kazmir coming back from a season during which he was 9-15 with a 5.94 ERA and decreased velocity with his fastball and White Sox starter Jake Peavy, who was felled in July 2010 with a torn latissimus dorsi muscle in his back.
Peavy was also effective, throwing two innings and allowing no hits while striking out two. Peavy hit 92 MPH at one point on the radar gun and threw 26 pitches overall.
However, Angels fans were much more concerned about Kazmir, especially after a rough first spring outing, when he gave up five hits and three runs in two innings of work. But his second outing clearly showed he is headed on the right track.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia no doubt breathed a sigh of relief after the outing by Kazmir as well.
"He's feeling good physically. He feels much better with his delivery. And I think you're seeing better results," Scioscia told MLB.com. "We need him to feel good about where he is and start to execute pitches because he has talent."
Especially encouraging was Kazmir’s ability to throw both his signature slider and his changeup for strikes. Last season, Kazmir completely lost confidence in his slider, once considered one of the nastiest among left-handers in all of baseball.
While Kazmir was satisfied with the results, he is still looking for more.
"It's getting there," he said. "Just picking up a ball and playing catch, everything feels so much better. But I'm not going to say I'm there, because I'm definitely not."
Yes, it’s still early in spring. However, seeing anything positive from Scott Kazmir at this point in time is encouraging, considering the dark place that Kazmir is coming from.
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