Prospect Milone delivers best outing of spring

Nationals left-handed pitcher Tom Milone has had a couple of outings since our last update, but he felt Tuesday was his best start of spring training. Milone went four innings, allowing three hits, no runs, no walks and striking out two batters. "It went good," Milone said. "It felt the best I have felt so far in camp. I had command on every pitch. My pitches were low in the zone. Everything felt pretty good." Milone says his off speed pitches were also hitting their spots "I had good break on my curveball," Milone said. "My changeup was good. I threw my changeup at 0-2 and 1-2 in the count and they ended up over the middle of the plate. They were able to get a couple of hits that way, but they weren't very hard hit." Milone noticed a difference in the way the hitters were approaching his repertoire Tuesday versus earlier in spring when they seemed to be hacking. "The past two starts I have been keeping the ball down in the zone early in counts," Milone said. "Today they would see that and not swing at the first pitch. This team was a little more patient." Milone says that's how they got the three base hits, although none of them were hit particularly hard. The bottom line for Milone was he threw a scoreless four innings and had good control of his pitches. "Whenever I can put up zeroes I am happy," Milone said. "I basically got my command back in this start. My command feels now like it did last year. I am glad I felt that today." Milone is scheduled to pitch five innings in his next start on Sunday. Accelerated camp will conclude the first Sunday in April.