LOS ANGELES – Braves prospect Sean Newcomb had a 1.48 ERA and .202 opponents’ average in his first four major league starts in June, pitching at least innings and allowing six or fewer hits in each of those games while issuing more than two walks just once and giving up one or no runs three times.
But in three starts since, Newcomb has an 11.37 ERA and .393 opponent’ average, has averaged barely four innings, allowed four or more runs each time out including seven runs once in only 3 1/3 innings and issued nine walks plus hit two batters in 12 2/3 innings, the kind of command problems he had in the minors but avoided in his first big-league starts.
When he faces the Dodgers in a series finale Sunday at Dodger Stadium, the rookie left-hander will try to get back to doing what he did in his initial starts – be aggressive, avoid mistakes, maintain his focus every pitch. Newcomb, 24, knows there probably won’t be much margin for error, seeing as he’ll be facing Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, a lefty he’s long admired.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool going against him,” Newcomb said. “But I’m just going to treat it like another game. Going against a pretty good lineup again so I’ve just got to go out there and really lock it in, pitch-by-pitch, one pitch at a time.”
Newcomb’s three consecutive rough starts have come against a trio of baseball’s best teams: the Astros, who had the majors’ best record at the time, the Nationals and the Cubs. Now he’ll face the Dodgers, who have the majors’ best record and had an 11-game winning streak before the Braves beat them Thursday and Friday.
“Yeah, he’s gotten a lot of baptism by fire, for sure,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “And I think over time it’s going to plane out, because he was about as good as you could be, probably better than he was every in the minor leagues, in his first (major league) games. Just the command, secondary stuff, the whole thing. But I still like what I’ve seen out of him. I think he’s fine. I like the way, in his own quiet way, how he competes.
“What I’ve seen, he’s not giving in, he’s competing, he’s doing fine. I think it’s good for him. He’s faced some really good teams and he’s going to face another one here (Sunday). I mean, it’s kind of like, dude, I’m in the big leagues.”
Newcomb said he watched plenty of video of his recent performances to see what he could have done differently.
“From the Washington and Astros games especially,” he said. “Definitely just learned I’ve got to pretty much stay aggressive, just make my pitches. A lot of things would have went differently if I’d have maybe made just a few pitches different.”
Asked the difference between his past few starts and his first four, he said, “I felt like at the beginning I was riding some momentum, I felt good with my command and everything. I’ve just got to go kind of slow it down and lock that back in.”
Snitker said, “He’s learning how to be a major league pitcher, the in-betweens, the process and study that goes into it and all that. It’s fun to watch him play. The other day (five runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings vs. the Cubs on Tuesday) he wasn’t great, but when he left the game it was doable. It could have gotten out of hand; I’ve seen young guys in situations like that where it got out of hand and was not manageable. He kind of kept it there.”
