Right-hander Chris Leroux got the start for the Toros del Este on Monday night against the Estrellas de Oriente in the Dominican league. In his first appearance in winter ball this season, Leroux allowed one unearned run on one hit and a walk while striking out six batters over four innings.
It marked Leroux’s first professional start since 2006 when he was with the Florida Marlins organization.
A huge reason for Leroux’s success this season was due to a new arm slot and pitch. Leroux told me back in July that he added the slurve to his repertoire, a pitch he used to throw back in College at Winthrop University.
“I was sick and tired of having a mediocre secondary pitch,” Leroux said. “I just went back to throwing my pitch that I threw in College, that really worked for me and it feels really good.”
Leroux went to Double-A Altoona earlier in the season to work on the new pitch, and the results have made a huge improvement for the right-hander, who posted a 6.75 ERA over 23 games last season.
Along with the new pitch, Leroux also changed his arm slot this year to help deceive the hitters.
“I’m more three-quarters [now],” Leroux said. “It’s where I used to be. I just started climbing a little bit. I thought it would create more angle but it was easier for the hitter to see.”
The 27-year-old sported a 2.88 ERA in 23 games with Pittsburgh this season (25.0 innings). He was scored upon six times in his 23 games, four times in his last six outings.
Righty Tim Wood, who spent the 2011 season with both Pittsburgh and Triple-A Indianapolis, pitched 1.1 innings of relief holding the Estrellas de Oriente to just one hit to pick up the save in the Toros 5-4 win.
Pirates shortstop Chase d’Arnaud went 0-for-3 with a hit by pitch in his third game during the winter league. He has yet to record a hit in his 10 at-bats. Matt Hague, who was the designated hitter for the Toros went 0-for-4 with a two strikeouts. Hague is batting .271 (3-for-11) in three games with the Toros.
Pirates left-hander Aaron Thompson, who allowed six runs on 13 hits over 7.2 innings (one start, three appearances from the ‘pen) with Pittsburgh during the 2011 season, will get the start tonight for the Toros del Este. The game starts at 7:30 PM and you can see the play-by-play and box score here.
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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