Chris Tillman made large strides in Monday Night’s 3-1 Baltimore Oriole (43-49) victory against the Texas Rangers.
BALTIMORE, Md. — In his first game back since the MLB All-Star Break, Tillman went six innings, walking four batters, striking out three and only giving up a run. The 29-year old was able to grab his first quality start of the season, despite not picking up the victory.
Coming into the game, Tillman was the owner of an abysmal 1-5 record and a 7.90 ERA in 49 innings pitched. Through his outing on Monday, Tillman was able to bring his ERA down to 7.20.
“I went six and made good pitches when I had to,” Tillman said after the game. “There’s a process to it and that’s the most important thing.”
Tillman had a long layoff in between his last start and tonight’s game. His last start came on June 30th vs the Tampa Bay Rays. In that outing, Tillman went five innings, allowing two runs, while walking two and striking out five.
He spoke about getting back into the flow after taking so much time off:
“Not good,” said Tillman, when asked how he felt about having a long stretch of being off. “It’s a long time. I definitely feel rested, but a little bit throughout the road trip, I felt groggy.”
Although Tillman’s stats looked stronger than in the past, he still had trouble finding the strike zone. With four walked batters and a 95-52 pitch-to-strike ratio, Tillman lived a little on the wild side.
“Yeah it’s getting there, but it’s a process,” Tillman stated. “As long as you stay true with who you are and focus on that process, in the end… hopefully it all works out.”
However, his ability to work through the walks and continued usage of his fastball allowed him to find success.
“It was to the point where I was falling behind and I was cheating to get back in the count with something else,” said Tillman on his fastball usage. “But that’s not who I am and not who I want to be.”
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