ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Red Sox rookie Richard Fitts didn’t pitch well in July for Triple-A Worcester, allowing 15 earned runs in 17 innings (7.94 ERA) over four starts.
“I kind of hit a reset button after July,” Fitts said here at Tropicana Field on Tuesday. “The Olympics started up and that kind of awoke a competitive edge in me a little bit.”
The 2024 Summer Olympics took place from July 26-Aug. 11.
The 24-year-old Fitts posted a 2.54 ERA (39 innings, 11 earned runs) over six starts for the WooSox from July 27-Sept. 2 before earning a promotion to Boston where his dominant stretch has continued. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in 10 ⅔ innings with the Red Sox.
“We recorded pretty much every (Olympic) event,” Fitts said. “I’m still watching it every start day.”
Watching events before starts has become part of his routine. The Olympic athletes have made him look at things in a simple way — just go out there and win.
“I just kind of flipped a switch of like, ‘Hey, let’s go win a ballgame,’” Fitts said.
He especially enjoyed watching kayaking and canoeing. He previously hadn’t known they were Olympic events.
“I got really into that,” Fitts said. “So that was pretty cool.”
He also took a liking to competition speed climbing and competition lead climbing.
“That’s one of the ones I just finished up a little bit ago,” he said.
He said he watched Olympics in previous years “a little bit.”
“But never like I have this year,” Fitts said. “I really got into it from all the guys at Worcester. … We had Eddy Alvarez, a two-time Olympian.”
Alvarez, who played in 115 games for Worcester this season and now is on the Mets’ active roster, has won Olympic silver medals in speed skating and baseball.
After winning a silver medal in the 5,000 meter relay as a short track speed skater for the United States in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Alvarez medaled again with the USA baseball team in 2020 in Tokyo, making him only the sixth athlete and third American in history to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
“The opening ceremonies were on and we’re sitting in Scranton, Pennsylvania and all the TVs have it on,” Fitts said. “Eddy’s got his iPad up. So it was like, ‘All right, I think I’m going to watch everything this year.’”
Fitts struggled in both June and July. But July was especially tough as opponents batted .342 against him.
“I was frustrated by the results, obviously,” he said. “It’s not fun to look at the box score and see runs on the board and stuff like that.”
But he would meet with the coaches the day after starts and they would reassure him the process was going well. They let him know he was extremely close to getting the results he wanted.
“And then pretty much August hit and then it was like, ‘OK, here we go. These are the results we’re looking for.’ So it all builds on each other. I don’t like months like July.”
But he added that frustrating months like July make stretches like the one he’s in the middle of right now feel even more rewarding. He’s throwing with a lot of confidence.
“Just having the confidence and the mentality to go out and get outs and be competitive,” he said.
His stuff has been sharp. He recorded 20 swings and misses against Rochester batters in Worcester’s 3-1 win on Sept. 2. He got 12 swings and misses with his slider, which he threw 40 times. He also recorded six swings and misses with his four-seam fastball, which he threw 25 times. His four-seamer averaged 94.2 mph and topped out at 95.3 mph.
He has made some adjustments this season, including to his changeup. The changeup has been registering as a split-finger fastball on Baseball Savant.
“My changeup has (had) a big change in just kind of the movement profile and how we’re throwing it,” Fitts said.
He also changed up his pitch usage percentages.
“I’m throwing my fastball less than I ever have in my career,” he said. “But I’m still able to use it in counts that I want to. I’m able to use it in two-strike counts … but also kind of putting it on the back burner, and be like, ‘Hey, I’m throwing my slider pretty well so I can throw that in any count, too.’”
