Wells makes spring debut, Zimmermann tosses three scoreless innings (updated)

SARASOTA, Fla. – A pitch clock violation wasn’t the most annoying part of Tyler Wells’ day in his first spring start. Pretty close, though.

One of this year's rule changes kept tweaking him.

Wells allowed three runs and five hits today in two innings against the Braves. Left-hander Cionel Pérez replaced him in the third.

Michael Harris, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, homered with the bases empty and two outs in the first. Ehire Adrianza had an RBI double in the second after Forrest Wall’s leadoff single, and Eddie Rosario lined a single to right field with two outs for a 3-0 lead.

Wells faced 11 batters and threw 36 pitches, 24 for strikes. He had eight first-pitch strikes, an exception coming with his violation against Rosario before the RBI single.

“The positives of it, for sure, and something that Hyder (manager Brandon Hyde) talked a lot about the other day to the group of guys was just getting ahead, attacking guys, don’t put yourself in counts that aren’t going to benefit you, and definitely did that today,” Wells said.

“It’s definitely a good building block for the rest of spring training.”

Asked about Wells following a 3-2 loss, Hyde said, "First time out, had been a while. I thought the fastball looked good, threw a few good sliders. He got hurt on the changeup a little bit. The changeup was kind of up and middle on some of those hits, and a bad cutter to Harris. Just didn't get it in far enough. But it's been a while, threw a bunch of strikes. I think his stuff looked OK."

Wells retired Rosario on a first-pitch ground ball in the opening inning and got a called third strike on Orlando Arcia. Harris fell behind 0-2, took a pitch outside the zone and homered to right field.

A cutter that got too much of the plate was punished.

“He gets paid to hit, too,” Wells said. “I left him a cutter kind of just like up and in on his hands, and he pulled it. Quite a few of those base hits that were through that three-four hole were just pitches that were kind of just down the middle.

“This goes back to what Hyder was saying. Just trying to get ahead of guys. I didn’t have great feel for a lot of my stuff today but that’s the beauty of spring training. Is that eventually you get it. Just being in the zone, for me, was the good thing.”

Travis d’Arnaud singled to right after Harris’ homer, but Eli White grounded into a force.

The next two batters were retired in the second inning after Adrianza’s run-scoring double, including Joe Dunand’s strikeout, but Rosario padded the lead.

The three runs are the most surrendered by a starting candidate. Bruce Zimmermann was charged with two in his first appearance.

“It’s spring training, first start,” Wells said. “It sucks to give up runs regardless. I’m one of those people, I don’t care if it’s the first start, I don’t care if it’s a playoff game, it always sucks to give up runs.”

The pitch clock was a factor for Wells beyond his violation.  

“I’m not going to lie, I would say it semi-tied into the Harris home run,” he said. “I’m sitting there and I’m thinking a different pitch, but you look at the pitch clock, you’ve got five seconds, you know you don’t have a whole lot of time to shake, and I wasn’t too sure about the whole step-off thing.

“Ultimately, it is going to take some getting used to, and I can see how it definitely helps with the pace of play. Mixed reviews on it today just because a few things didn’t go my way, but at the same time, too, I can understand why people like it.”

Wells clarified that, while he felt rushed to shake off the cutter, the real issue was the location of the pitch.

“I trust Adley (Rutschman) whenever he calls a pitch, and ultimately where I threw it was not where he needed it to be or wanted it to be,” Wells said. “I think he wanted it up and in, and it was middle. And like I said, they get paid to play, too, so every once in a while, they’re going to beat you.”

Wells is happy to dissect his pitch selection and location, but he isn’t interested in doing it with the camp’s starter competition.

“I’m trying to focus on what I’m doing,” he said. “We’ve got a great group of starters and we’ve all had a lot of fun together, and we’re just going to keep it that way.”

The Braves loaded the bases against left-hander Cionel Pérez with one out in the third on a tough error call against shortstop Joey Ortiz, an infield hit and a walk. Gunnar Henderson backhanded Adrianza’s sharp grounder, stepped on the bag and fired to first for the double play.

Zimmermann tossed three scoreless innings, striking out three batters and retiring the last eight - much to the delight of his cheering section. Henderson started another double play in the fourth after Yolmer Sánchez’s leadoff single. Harris and d’Arnaud struck out in the fifth.

"Nice to see," Hyde said. "I thought the velocity was up a little bit, which was good to see. Really good sliders, too, especially to left-handed hitters. He has that good changeup. I was really impressed by the slider and the strike-throwing ability against the lefties."

The Orioles had three hits over three innings against Braves starter Spencer Strider, the National League’s Rookie of the Year runner-up. Kyle Stowers lined a single into center field with two outs in the first, Franchy Cordero reached in the second after knocking the glove off Strider’s hand with a shot up the middle, and Henderson lined a single into right field in the third.

Michael Tonkin allowed a run in the fourth on Ryan O’Hearn’s leadoff single, a balk and Colton Cowser’s two-out single to left. Cowser entered the lineup later after the Orioles scratched Terrin Vavra.

Vavra experienced some soreness in his left shoulder during batting practice and is day-to-day. Hyde said Vavra didn't play "as a precaution."

O’Hearn’s single was his fifth hit in nine spring at-bats.

Ryan McKenna singled with two outs in the sixth, Cowser walked and Ortiz followed with a single into right field that reduced the Braves’ lead to 3-2.

Stowers singled and walked in three plate appearances and is batting .364 in four games. He’s going to receive more at-bats with Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander leaving for the World Baseball Classic.

Hyde had Stowers batting third behind Henderson and Rutschman and ahead of Jordan Westburg. A moment that Stowers took the time to appreciate.

“You see the lineup card and it’s just like, ‘Man, we’ve been doing this together for a long time now,’” Stowers said. “Obviously, there’s groups in the big leagues that have been together longer, but just for us to be going through such transformative years together, in our early 20s into adulthood and going up the system together, you see the names on the lineup and it’s just familiar, it’s comfortable and it’s a lot of fun.”

Cade Povich, 22, logged two more scoreless innings to give him four this spring. Anthony Bemboom aided him in the eighth by throwing out a runner attempting to steal.