Richard Fitts had 'fun' during his first WooSox start; he was also critical of his results postgame
The WooSox grounds crew worked well into the early hours on Friday morning to make baseball possible following an April snowstorm in New England. With the field ready to go, new WooSox pitcher Richard Fitts made his first start with the organization at frigid Polar Park.
The right-hander tossed 4 1/3 innings while surrendering six hits, one run, while walking two and striking out three.
“I didn’t really do as well as I wanted too,” Fitts said on his first Triple-A outing.
“I didn’t pound the zone as much as I wanted too. I had a couple of walks, I got into a lot of late counts and three ball counts which I didn’t love. Moving on throughout the outing, I started pounding the zone a little bit more and had a little bit more success,” added Fitts.
Fitts only needed one pitch to get the first out of the game, forcing the Bisons' Nathan Lukes to pop out to third base. Following the quick first out, Fitts would run into trouble, allowing baserunners in the inning and giving up an RBI double to Addison Barger.
The run was unearned due to an error by shortstop Romy Gonzalez in the frame, but it was the only run Fitts would allow the Bisons to plate off him.
It was a mixed bag from there for Fitts, who seemed to work from the stretch due to allowing multiple hits in innings over the duration of his start. He was able to strand eight base runners while tossing 78 total pitches. For the most part, Fitts filled the zone, firing 44 pitches in the strike zone, and batters swung at 40 of his pitches.
The Alabama native threw his four-seam heater and slider 37 times and induced eight swings and misses. His fastball topped out at 95 mph and sat around 92.8 mph for the majority of the game, per Baseball Savant.
“There’s different aspects that going into it (my start) but ultimately, I got to do my job just like everybody else does too,” Fitts said on his outing. “I can make a million excuses, it’s my job to go out there and throw strikes.
“The biggest thing is pounding the strike zone. I’m really good when I can get ahead of hitters and kind of do what I want too. These hitters are good enough to where if I get behind, they’ll do damage to whatever I throw over the plate,” Fitts said.
Even though Fitts felt he didn't pitch that well on Friday afternoon, he still enjoyed himself and competed on the mound.
“It was fun,” said Fitts. “Long waited for sure, I was supposed to pitch on Wednesday and it got pushed back, unfortunately you can’t help the weather.”
This was Fitts first start since the exhibition contest in Texas prior to the start of the regular season. During that start, he tossed three and a 1/3 scoreless innings while punching out three in a winning effort for the Red Sox.
