Corey Kluber’s rocky start in Friday’s loss wasn’t helped by some porous defense behind him, but the veteran righty wasn’t making any excuses after allowing five runs, three of them earned, through 2.1 innings of work.
“I think it’s easy to probably allow yourself to get frustrated, but good pitchers are able to flush that stuff and focus on the next pitch,” Kluber said after the game. “You’re not going to be able to change the result…it doesn’t do any good to dwell on that.”
Kluber was much more focused on the two walks he surrendered, and the 23 balls he threw out of 62 pitches. On multiple occasions, Kluber lost hitters he had previously been ahead on early in the count, and while the second inning unraveled after a throwing error by DJ LeMahieu and a grounder that scooted under the glove of Tyler Wade, Kluber was much more focused on his own execution when discussing what went wrong in Friday’s outing.
“I think their offense did a good job of lengthening some at-bats,” Kluber said. “There were a few at-bats where I got ahead of guys and they got back in the count and fouled off some pitches, so it was a grind.”
Kluber didn’t look as sharp as his first outing, when he allowed one earned run through four innings of work against a tough Blue Jays lineup last week, but he told reporters that he felt more in sync on Friday than in his Yankee debut.
Of course, the results didn’t reciprocate that.
“It’s one of the funny things about baseball,” Kluber said. “I actually felt better about how I executed pitches out there…once they leave your hand you have to flush whatever happens and move on to the next one.”
One of the concerns for Kluber on Friday was the just eight swings and misses he recorded, which resulted in plenty of balls in play that either found holes or found their way past a shaky Yankee defense. Kluber, who relies on soft contact and precise command, didn’t seem to have either on Friday despite feeling sharper than his first start of the season.
“I think at times I left them back into the counts and maybe wasn’t as aggressive in the zone as I would have liked to be,” Kluber said. “But there’s going to be times in the season where you execute a pitch and they get on base, and there will be times when you don’t execute a pitch and they don’t get on base.”
As for Kluber’s velocity, he hasn’t looked at the radar guns, and rarely does at this time of year. The veteran has experienced slower velocities and poorer results to start seasons many times in years past, and the Yanks hope 2021 is just a continuation of that trend, one that ends sooner than later.
“That’s probably the furthest thing from my mind…I’m more worried about executing pitches and not allowing hard contact,” Kluber said. “The velocity is what it is…not something I’m worried about.”
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