WooSox pitching coach Dan DeLucia thought Richard Fitts ‘battled’ during his first Triple-A start
New WooSox right-hander Richard Fitts made his first start with the club during Game 1 of the day-night doubleheader from Polar Park on Friday.
Despite the frigid temps, Fitts tossed 4 1/3 innings while giving up six hits, one run, walking two, and striking out three. The 24-year-old threw 78 pitches, had 41 swings, and eight whiffs while throwing his four-seam fast ball and slider 37 times each, per Baseball Savant.
WooSox pitching coach Dan DeLucia was encouraged by Fitts’ start but also reiterated that there’s more work to be done with him in the future.
“Overall, I thought he did a good job. He battled. He made some pitches when he needed to. As the game went on, he started figuring out hitters a little more. He saw what was working for him, and then he just kept trying to attack the zone,” said DeLucia.
Fitts threw 44 pitches that were in the strike zone, and batters swung at 40 of those pitches. He had seven hard-hit balls in play, 10 that weren't, and forced seven ground balls for outs over the outing.
“I thought tonight he had to battle a little bit,” DeLucia said to reporters postgame from Polar Park. “It’s his first start after having two days of being snowed out; I think there was a little rust there, not just for him but for everybody who had to pitch.”
The Red Sox have been emphasizing the importance of filling and pouring the zone with strikes since Craig Breslow, Andrew Bailey, and Justin Willard implemented the organization's new pitching philosophies. For the most part, during camp in Fort Myers and now in the regular season, the pitchers have been doing that.
“He’s typically a guy that pounds the zone early and often. There are some improvements that can be made; I don’t want to single out one outing. We need to look at outings over a longer period of time. Overall, we’re going to continue to develop a slider. I thought his changeup and fastball played pretty well.
“But I think if you asked him, he’d say, ‘It’s an okay outing,’ but there’s definitely some improvements that need to be made. He’s a hard worker, so I know he’ll be ready to go back to work in a couple of days,” added DeLucia.
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.
Overall, it was a mixed bag of results for Fitts in his first outing in the Red Sox organization. The righty told reporters postgame that he had fun on the mound but also that he needed to attack the zone more.
“I didn’t pound the zone as much as I wanted to. 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,” said Fitts.
