BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates were blown out by the Baltimore Orioles for the second day in a row Friday, losing at home, 11-4.
It was also the return of Chad Kuhl, who faced another team's batters for the first time in over 20 months.
When asked if he was nervous at all for that debut, Kuhl referenced Peyton Manning: "You don't get nervous when you know what the hell you're doing."
Kuhl paraphrased a bit ("Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what the hell you're doing"), perhaps fittingly because, as he would admit, yeah, he was feeling some nerves. After all, you can game plan and pitch bullpens and live batting practice, but nothing compares to a real game. Even a spring training game.
"Every game has nerves," Kuhl said. "It's been 20 months since I've been on the mound. Of course. We're all human, so you get nerves.
"But once you get out there, it's just baseball again."
Just baseball again. That's what he has been working towards for over a year and a half.
And for 23 pitches in the sixth inning, it was just baseball. His final line was humdrum -- a walk, a single, a strikeout and a ground out, with those two runners eventually scoring and being charged to him -- but it was a landmark day that he finally passed.
"Just to be able to say, 'it's not my first time back' anymore the next time we go out, as we move past all this," Kuhl said. "Feel even more like a regular guy. Part of the team."
Speaking of that team.
JT Brubaker saw what Kuhl went through last year on his road to recovery, spending a good chunk of last season in Pirate City rehabbing alongside him.
"That was exciting," Brubaker was telling me. "I got chills... I wish I had a better view than just the bullpen."
The rest of the clubhouse was excited for him, too.
"It was good to see him back on the mound," Derek Shelton said.
"He's worked his ass off," Trevor Williams said.
"I'm happy for him. I wish we could have got him out of that inning," his catcher, John Ryan Murphy, said.
Back to Kuhl. Just baseball again Kuhl. His fastball sat at 93-94 mph, but he felt like his command was just ok.
"I felt like I was just dancing around the zone," Kuhl said. "I feel like I didn't fill it up as best I could."
There was plenty of breaking stuff, though. Back in January at PiratesFest, he talked about how he was a bit nervous to throw that first slider in his rehab, one of the final hurdles he still had to overcome before returning to game situations.
Watching him Friday, you wouldn't be able to tell he had any reservations with it, offering it often and getting his strikeout on a slider.
"I just wanted to go out and throw everything. Throw all my stuff," Kuhl said. "I feel like I did that... I think it's going to be a good four pitch mix once I get extended and add the changeup."
And perhaps most important of all, he felt he maintained the integrity of his delivery. He's worked on it to try to put less stress on his arm and elbow.
Kuhl threw a two inning sim game five days ago and imagines he will stay on that five day routine going forward. He hopes to go out for a second inning in his next outing.
You know, the next one. The one after the return.
"I'm just looking forward to when all the questions go away and I get to just pitch, play and be normal again," he said to close out the scrum, in fitting fashion.
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