CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Indians’ pitcher J.C. Mejia has endured a turbulent start to his major league career.
Despite matching a career-best six-innings pitched in an 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays Saturday night at Progressive Field, the rookie right-hander is still in search of his first win as a starter.
“I thought he competed well. You talk about getting into the 7th inning and we’re down by two runs with not much offense that we created,” said bench coach DeMarlo Hale. “You look back, he competed well, and I thought he gave us a chance to stay in the game and come back.”
Hale, who took over managerial duties for skipper Terry Francona who was sent home by the team’s medical staff with a head cold, said Mejia has developed a stronger pitching repertoire that shows progress.
“One of the things I’ve noticed over the last few starts is he’s starting to incorporate a breaking ball, a curve ball,” Hale said. “I think (that) helps guys stay off the power fastball, the slider and the sinker. It’s a little bit slower velocity. It gives a different kind of depth, top to bottom.”
There have been moments of promise, sure. But there have also been blunders.
Saturday’s latest outing saw him strike out six Rays batters, but he also surrendered three home runs. His lone victory was came in a relief appearance against the Tigers on May 24.
“I think the biggest difference has been the importance of securing every single pitch and how that helps my team get more innings and get better games,” Mejia said. “I was able to execute the pitches that I wanted to throw. Unfortunately, they did a good job and were able to connect.”
Mejia gave up a first inning home run to Ji-Man Choi, who went deep for the second straight night, before yielding a pair of home runs to Brett Phillips and Austin Meadows in the third. Meadows went deep for a second time in the game off Trevor Stephan in the ninth.
“The young man is evolving and there’s been some growing pains,” Hale said, “He can have some tough innings, but it seems like he bounces back when you send him back out there.”
Hale is pulling for Mejia for obvious reasons, but so is Indians’ first baseman Bobby Bradley. The two spent time together in the minor leagues and have both endured their share of ups and downs.
Bradley homered to even the score at 1-1 in the second inning, but also committed an error in the field.
“I think when he has the mindset of using the whole field, that benefits him. It’s not easy hitting up here,” Hale said. “He’s in the middle of the order. But I think as he plays, the adjustments are going to come a little bit quicker.”
Coming out of the break, Bradley used the time off to rest and watch some film.
“You’ve seen pitchers over the last series throw him some breaking balls, some secondary pitches, some off-speed pitches,” Hale continued. “He’s started to make adjustments as he gets better and understands a little bit more about what pitchers are trying to do to him.”
Bradley’s output was half of the Indians’ offense against the Rays. The tribe couldn’t solve Drew Rasmussen early on, who started as the Rays ran a bullpen game following the trade of scheduled starter Rich Hill.
Scoring runs early on would’ve been crucial against the Rays, who are one of the top teams in baseball when it comes to scoring in the later innings. They did more damage with three runs in the ninth Saturday night to effectively put the game away.
“They got some versatile players. You look at that team, I think I read a statistic where they’re up in the top of scoring runs late in the game from the 8th inning on,” Hale said. “They’ve got some switch hitters, some matchups that’s going in their favor a little bit. I think that helps them with that percentage of scoring runs late in the game.”