Quinn Priester dominates tossing 5 scoreless innings in third WooSox start
WooSox starter Quinn Priester took the mound for his third start since joining the Red Sox organization in July following a trade that sent Nick Yorke to the Pirates. In front of a packed Polar Park, Priester was dominant, hurling a gem over five innings of work.
The Illinois native opened the game by giving up a single on the first pitch to Kody Clemens to the right side that zipped by a diving Enmanuel Valdez at second base. He quickly settled on getting the next two outs before forcing Buddy Kennedy to ground out in the inning.
Priester would induce five ground ball outs over the first two frames while keeping his pitch count low. He allowed just two base runners all night. No runners advanced past third base against Priester.
The 23-year-old worked quickly and efficiently during this outing, throwing just 42 pitches, 29 for strikes. In all, he went five scoreless innings, giving up just two hits, no runs, no walks, and striking out one batter.
“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 said to the media following the game. “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.”
Priester threw his sinker 19 times and mixed in his slider 13 times, a pitch he is trying to add more vertical breakdown to as he develops further with the WooSox.
“The only thing that we've really identified at this moment as a goal is bringing the slider vertical break down,” said Priester to Beyond the Monster on Thursday at Polar Park. “So with the Pirates, they wanted that pitch to carry some vertical break to play a little bit more like a cutter. And over here, even with the swings that I've been seeing recently on the good ones that I throw, you know when I have no break.”
The Red Sox are also looking for Priester to bring out some of the velocity he showed when he was drafted.
“Their biggest focus with Quinn right now is recapturing him 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.”
Priester saw his sinker top out at 97 mph, and it averaged 94.7 mph over the duration of his start, according to Baseball Savant.
“I think velocity is a huge component, and that’s something that we've 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.”
Priester turned out one of the best pitching performances of the season for the WooSox. As the righty settles into the Red Sox organization, he is focused on winning games.
“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.”
