WORCESTER — Quinn Priester, who came over to the Red Sox last month in exchange for Nick Yorke, turned in one of the best five innings of pitching the WooSox have seen all season on Friday night.
Priester was incredibly efficient in his five innings of work, using only 42 pitches (29 strikes) and allowing just two baserunners, and one of those was the game’s leadoff hitter. Both of the hits were singles. No runners reached third base against Priester.
It was a full return to form for the former first-round draft pick, whose first start at Polar Park last homestand was a clunker (eight runs on six hits and four walks in 2 1/3 innings). He looked much better in his second outing and located better, walking just one, but was burned by a three-run home run from Brett Baty.
Everything came together on Friday night in Worcester. Priester pounded the strike zone, averaging less than 8 1/2 pitches per inning. He got two swings and misses apiece on his sinker, slider and changeup.
“Obviously that first start was terrible, but you just throw it away and say ‘next time, make it better.’ That start in Syracuse was better, but you still have the one mistake with the home run. But that’s good, we improved, now let’s get another good one under our belt, and that was tonight.
“Tonight was one that you don’t look back at and say ‘hey let’s make this one better,’ because there’s not really much else to do,” Priester added. “So it’s how can we do that every single time we go out and how can that be the floor for us, how can that be what we go out and do every single time? And that’s what we’re going to work on every single day.”
One particular focus for the Red Sox with Priester is to bring out some of the velocity he showed when he was first drafted.
“Their biggest focus with Quinn right now is recapturing and getting him getting some velocity back,” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said. “His stuff is really good. When he was first drafted by the Pirates and was going through their system those initial years, I think there was velo, which I think made him attractive. We know that’s in there.”
On Friday, Priester’s sinker topped out at 97 mph and averaged 94.7 over the course of the night, up about 1.7 mph from his year average.
“I think velocity is a huge component, and that’s something that we’re really honing in on ever since making the move over here,” Priester said. “I think if you look at the result today as if it’s any indication that velocity helps and it certainly does so I’m going to keep doing that and keep getting better.”
Friday night’s start – and performance by the relievers Zach Penrod, Luis Guerrero and Yohan Ramirez – was one of the best pitching performances of the year at Polar Park.
“It’s turning the way it needs to go,” Priester said. “Today was a really good start. I had time to get settled in now, and now it’s time to go and win some games.”
WooSox 3, IronPigs 0
Penrod followed up Priester’s impressive five innings with a scoreless sixth, allowing one hit and fanning two and living in the upper 90s with his fastball. Guerrero was excellent in his two innings of work, striking out two without allowing a baserunner. Ramirez hit a batter in the ninth but struck out two for his third save with the WooSox.
Lehigh Valley starter Seth Johnson was also very good on Friday, and kept the WooSox off balance. But once Johnson was out of the game, the bats woke up, as the WooSox plated three runs in the sixth. Reliever Andrew Bellatti walked the bases loaded, and Bobby Dalbec came through with a huge hit for the second time this week, doubling in two runs. Jamie Westbrook drove in the third run with a groundout.
Notes
- Marcelo Mayer is inching closer to make his WooSox debut. He’s checked off some of the boxes he needs to in order to be cleared to play, but it’s still unclear if he’ll be in Saturday’s lineup.
- “He’s going to do some more swings later off the Traject machine where it gets more like game-like, and then the running the bases was a box he needed to check too,” Tracy said. “So we’ll let him finish out his swings later pre-game here to see if everything goes well with that. And then I’ll double back with the trainers and see if we have a thumbs up to get him in there at DH tomorrow or not, or does he need another day. But we’re certainly getting closer. No hiccups to this point.”
What’s Next
The WooSox continue their series with the IronPigs with Brad Keller on the mound on Saturday. First pitch is at 4:05 p.m.
