Chris Archer lived up to his promise and he didn't sound the least bit surprised by it.
After he lost his fifth consecutive start last Sunday, one in which he was booed by fans at PNC Park, he vowed he would be better his next time out. And those jeers turned to cheers Friday night as Archer pitched seven solid innings to help the Pirates beat the Brewers, 9-4, and get back to .500 at 28-28.
“I’ll be real,” Archer said when I asked if he needed an outing like this from a mental standpoint. “I don’t need it because my confidence has never been wavering. I’m coming up on 200 starts in the big leagues. Nobody is going to be perfect. I’ve done it long enough. I’ve thrown thousands and thousands of pitches. Sometimes the game doesn’t go your way. If you allow it to overwhelm you, it will. But since I’ve done this for a long time, I’m not going to be overwhelmed. I’m going to stay relentless. I've been doing this a long time. I'm not going to let (a slump) define me."
Archer didn’t exactly overwhelm the Brewers, but he pitched well enough, allowing four runs, six hits and two walks while striking out seven in seven innings. Perhaps the most impressive part of the outing was that Archer got those seven innings on just 92 pitches. Pitch efficiency has often been a problem for him since being acquired from the Rays last July 31 in a trade.
Freddy Peralta was one of Archer's strikeout victims:
It was Archer's first win since April 7.
“It was a lot of good things that happened tonight,” Clint Hurdle said. “There wasn’t one thing. He came out and the body was fresh and live. There was some energy, some edge. The fastball played extremely well, and he kept throwing it. He challenged them with the fastball and when he got them looking for the fastball, he threw the changeup.
“We’ve seen this from him before. The game can be hard and sometimes you can get caught in some vacuums that take a little while to get out of. He just got a fresh start tonight, went back to the basics and threw his fastball.”
Archer wound up throwing 50 fastballs, which accounted for more than half his pitches. Going back to the basic tenet of pitching off your fastball – an art dying in today’s breaking ball-oriented game – was by design.
Archer threw two bullpen sessions between starts — one more than usual — while looking to get back on track. Backup Jacob Stallings, who got the start at catcher Friday night, caught both bullpens and suggested Archer rely more on the heater.
“He had very good command of the fastball and that set up all his other pitches,” Stallings said. “He was throwing all five of his pitches well and when he’s pitching like that, he’s going to be tough to beat.”
Staked to a 7-1 lead after the Pirates scored six runs in the third inning, Archer gave half the advantage back in the fourth when tagged for a three-run home run by rookie Keston Hiura with two outs.
It was easy to wonder if Archer would be able to hold the big lead, considering how poorly he has pitched in recent weeks. The concern grew when he followed the homer by walking Jesus Aguilar -- who hit a solo homer in the third -- and giving up a single to Orlando Arcia.
Archer escaped the jam, though, and retired 10 of his last 11 hitters.
“I felt really strong, very comfortable,” Archer said. “I felt like I was throwing the ball well. I never reached a point where I was concerned.”
Archer was quite carefree when the game was over, winking at me following his post-game scrum with the media and saying, “Believe me, I’m going to sleep well tonight.”
To continue reading, log into your account:
