Clearwater, Fla. — Will Warren faced the almost identical Phillies lineup that he made on Tuesday in his MLB debut seven months ago.
However, he considers him to be a different pitcher than Citizens Bank Park's in July last year.
Pitching at Grapefruitreeg is far from the environment in which Warren first started his big leagues. He recorded his first 10.32 ERA of six outings last season when he was knocked by the Phillies.
“Unfortunately, we got a lot of downs last year, but we learned from them and moved on,” Warren said after giving up a solo home run over three innings in a 12-3 victory over the Phillies. “You'll take that into many mistakes this year and you'll overcome it and learn from your mistakes.”
Warren issued a leadoff walk to Trea Turner in an eight-pitch at-bat (after moving forward 1-2), and experimented with throwing a first-pitch curveball in the second inning. He's adding to Max Kepler, who he added to his Arsenal this spring and drilled for a home run.
However, he retired all the other batsmen he faced, including strikeouts from Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, as well as seeing changeups and sweepers, respectively, including fastballs and strikeouts from JT Realmuto and Turner.
“Well, he was great,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The changes are real now. You see life with fastballs. Put some good fastballs by good batters and mix the sinker and four seams. A lot was done. Another good day for him.”
On three outings this spring, Warren allowed two hits to run and two walks in eight innings, attacking 11.
Around this time last year it looked like Warren could be his fifth starter.
Of course, that job was ultimately won by Lewis Gill, before Warren greened, through a bumpy season between Triple A (5.91 ERA with 23 starts) and his first major flavour.
But a year later, Gill is set to go out until at least June due to high rat tension. Warren represents the following insurance if the rotation suffers another injury (Marcus Stroman is about to intervene in Gill).
And when it happens — it's inevitably at some point this season — the Yankees and Warren rely on him having better equipment to handle the big league lineup, for what he went through last year.
“I probably have a little more control over myself and know what makes him better,” said Austin Wells, who caught Warren on his MLB debut last July 30th.
Warren was called to make her Philadelphia debut last July when Gerrit Cole was injured from physical fatigue.
The Mississippi native joked Tuesday that he didn't remember much about the game. He was tagged with four runs in 5¹/₃ innings, but said he hoped he was taking a little more.
Over six outings (five starts), the opponent hit .340 with a 1.012 OPS against Warren.
However, his confidence was not shaken by the experience. If anything, he arrived at camp this spring as he tries to rewrite his scripts every time he gets his next chance in the Big League.
“It's part of his experience,” Boone said. “It's part of how he continues to reach that next level and why am I making lots of Clark Schmidt comparisons? It was Clark a few years ago. You saw something good, even if there were some outings he had a bit of a hit. He made mistakes and did some sort of learning. Hopefully, he did something. [Warren] It has benefited from many of its benefits. ”
