BRADENTON, FLA. — The only real sensitive issue for Jhoulys Chacin in the aftermath of his latest pitch to join the Braves rotation was just how much grief he was going to have to take for one particularly grievous gopher ball.
It was a half-hearted sinker that he threw to Pittsburgh starter Francisco Liriano in the third inning Monday that was in question. Liriano, a 10-year veteran with one career home run to his credit, lofted it into the sizable breeze and over the fence in rightfield for the only run Chacin would yield.
“A get-me-over sinker, right over the middle. Maybe I wasn’t that aggressive throwing to the pitcher,” Chacin said afterward. “Good it happened to me in spring training but when I get to the season I have to remember that and I don’t make the same mistake.
“(Teammates) always joke about it when the pitcher even gets a base hit off you. That’s one pitch I don’t want to make again.”
Otherwise, Chacin rebounded nicely from his last less-than-impressive outing (eight hits, three runs five days ago). In the Braves 7-3 victory, Chacin worked 3 1/3 innings, striking out five, walking two, giving up four hits.
From non-roster invitee and something of a reclamation project — working through injury and so-so production his last two seasons in Colorado and Arizona — to No. 4 starter for the Braves? That remains a possibility.
“I’m not going to anoint him right now but he is definitely a guy who if he keeps pitching the way he is will be in the rotation someplace,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Two of his three spring outings have been solid (his ERA after a small 8 1/3-inning sample size is 3.12). Chacin distanced himself from his last poor outing by later in that third inning getting a bases-loaded fly ball out to limit the damage.
“I’m not too happy that I couldn’t finish my innings,” said Chacin, who did not get through the fourth because his pitch count was inflated. “But I’m just happy that I could make pitches when I needed to and it didn’t happen like it happened my last outing.”
So, does he think he added any concrete to the fluid situation at the bottom of the Braves rotation?
“I don’t think about it,” Chacin said. “I think about making good outings, trying to show people that I’m healthy and that I can pitch again. That I can move the ball, get ground balls and strike out people when I have to. Go day by day, don’t worry about what happens next.”
About the Author
