Quinn Priester 'frustrated' following Grapefruit League start
Quinn Priester is trying to win a spot on the Red Sox Opening Day roster.
The righty started for the Sox on Saturday afternoon and wasn’t sharp, struggling to pitch in the zone. This came on the heels of skipper Alex Cora telling him, Fitts, and other candidates Cooper Criswell, Michael Fulmer, and Sean Newcomb how important it is to throw strikes.
Priester threw 62 pitches, 38 for strikes, allowing three runs all of them earned off six hits with three walks with four strikeouts over 2 2/3 innings.
“Frustrated,” Priester said. “Need to be better. There’s no better way to say that. I think the breaking balls saved me from giving up more. But ultimately I need to be better with the fastballs and I think a lot of those runs come off the board. I think (if) we execute fastballs, we throw them better, those balls down the line turn into foul balls and then we can keep him honest with some stuff.
”It just needs to get better and we will," Priester added. “We still got some starts left and we’re going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and ultimately get ready to compete.”
His rough outing on Saturday shouldn’t disqualify him from making the Opening Day roster. Young pitchers struggle at times with their command. If Priester is going to see success at the big league level and stick around with the Red Sox, he will need to locate his fastball.
“It’s so hard to say. I think ultimately right now emotions are high, frustration’s high,” Priester said. “So I can think a million different things about what went wrong or what could have been wrong. Could the sinker not sink? Could the sinker not do exactly what it normally does? Did the cutter stay a little arm side time to time? Sure. But that’s going to happen in every start.
“I think for me right now it’s let this emotion fuel this next work week,” he said. “But ultimately, once it calms down, get a more realistic feel for exactly what happened. And then, like I said, get back after it tomorrow and start getting ready for the next one.”
Red Sox announce Garrett Crochet as their Opening Day starter; Houck and Buehler to follow
It should be no surprise that the Red Sox named left-hander Garrett Crochet as their Opening Day starter. The southpaw was acquired back in December for this very moment and to lead the rotation.