BRADENTON, Fla. \u2014 Bubba Chandler cruised through his first three major league games, earning a four-inning save in his debut and wins in his next two appearances before the Milwaukee Brewers dealt the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher his first blowout.<\/p>\n
The Brewers scored nine runs on nine hits and three walks in 2 2\/3 innings against Chandler in a 10-2 win on Sept. 7, an outcome that would have crushed the confidence of most rookies. When Don Kelly approached Chandler to talk about it two days later in Baltimore, the Pirates manager was surprised by his reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had already forgotten about (the start), put himself past that and continued to work on going back out there,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cAnd then his outing in Washington was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler followed with five perfect innings in a seven-strikeout performance against the Nationals, flashing bold bravado and a triple-digit fastball. It\u2019s a combination that makes the 23-year-old right-hander one of the game\u2019s top prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cBubba responds really well when he gets punched in the face,\u201d said Pirates ace Paul Skenes, the 2025 National League Cy Young winner. \u201cThat\u2019s Bubba. That\u2019s what you\u2019re going to get. That\u2019s not going to say he\u2019s going to ride the wave. When guys get called up, they kind of do ride the wave, but the waves are going to be smaller for him going forward. The proverbial punch in the face is going to be a lot less than giving up nine runs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler credits Kelly for that batting practice chat in Baltimore, where he checked in and offered reassurance: \u201cHe was like, \u2018Who cares? You\u2019re getting the ball again in a couple days. Go out there and pitch how you can pitch,\u2019\u201d Chandler said. \u201cI had the support of my manager \u2026 to go out there and dominate the next game, and I did that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes to show the kind of man that DK is. He\u2019s the right man to lead us. I\u2019ll remember that conversation probably the rest of my life. It set me on a better path to finish the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler finished with a 4-1 record, 4.02 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 31 1\/3 innings over seven appearances (four starts), with 31 strikeouts against four walks and two home runs allowed. Subtract the start against the Brewers, and he had a 1.57 ERA in his other six appearances.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why this spring training has such a different feeling for Chandler, who is positioned to earn a spot in the Pirates\u2019 starting rotation. Last year, his hopes of winning a starting role were dashed when the Pirates signed veteran left-hander Andrew Heaney to a one-year contract in late February, during the first week of big league camp.<\/p>\n
Chandler shared that he was excited about the signing of Heaney because he was a World Series champion. Upon reflection, he\u2019s grateful that he got to pick Heaney\u2019s brain about preparing to pitch in every circumstance when they were in the bullpen together late last season.<\/p>\n
Chandler is cocksure enough to believe he would have been the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft had he remained a dangerous dual-threat quarterback at Clemson instead of accepting the Pirates\u2019 $3 million over-slot bonus as a 2021 third-round pick to play professional baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I like to tell people,\u201d Chandler said with a chuckle. \u201cIt would\u2019ve taken me three years, but I\u2019d be the first overall pick, probably won a couple playoff games and won a Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler is humble enough to admit that Mike Burrows and Braxton Ashcraft deserved promotions to the majors before him, and that the mid-summer struggles he endured while waiting at Triple-A Indianapolis only taught him a valuable lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned patience last year,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cI\u2019m glad I learned it at a young age. Every stop I made in the minor leagues, I pitched well and moved up quickly. I never had to have any real adversity \u2014 there\u2019s adversity within starts, but nothing is out of your hand. \u2026 I started off hot and pitched a little worse than I\u2019m capable of. I had a rough stretch there, but I\u2019m glad I did. I don\u2019t think I would\u2019ve finished the year the way I did if I didn\u2019t have some crappy weeks and months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler\u2019s first week in the majors was historic, as he pitched eight scoreless innings in his first two outings. Chandler earned the four-inning save in a 9-0 win over the Colorado Rockies in his debut Aug. 22, then got the win in a 2-1 victory at the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t allow a run until his third appearance, against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Chandler faced a 3-1 count but threw a 99.2-mph heater that Shohei Ohtani smacked over the Clemente Wall at 120-mph exit velocity for his 46th home run of the season. Not only was it his first home run allowed but the first run he surrendered as a major leaguer.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp until that point, I was hitting every pitch, or at least very close. I missed a spot and I paid for it,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cIt was like, \u2018God bless. These guys are good. You better be dialed in.\u2019 Shohei\u2019s a really good player, but if you\u2019re a 9-hole hitter on a big league team, you\u2019re still a major league baseball player and still really good. Every guy is going to make you pay for your mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler made Ohtani pay in his next at-bat, breaking his bat on a groundout. It was emblematic of Chandler\u2019s competitive fire and how he responds to adversity by digging deeper. It\u2019s an attitude he\u2019s carried into spring training, as Chandler battles for a spot on the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a little more confidence in not just his ability but his routine,\u201d Pirates veteran starter Mitch Keller said. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever had to worry about confidence in what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s more comfortable in his routine, got a little bit more of an idea that he can slow it down during his workdays. He looks great.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Chandler is treating every day of big league camp as a chance to get better. He struck out 19-year-old phenom Konnor Griffin on three pitches in a live batting practice Wednesday, showing that his confidence hasn\u2019t wavered but instead increased with every performance. Chandler has vowed that his goal is to get better every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly it,\u201d Skenes said. \u201cHe\u2019s more sure of himself. He has more awareness of what he needs to do. He has more of a plan and a better plan. That\u2019s not saying he had a bad plan last year; as you do it longer, you have more awareness of what you have to do and you get a better plan and routine. So it\u2019s been fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRADENTON, Fla. \u2014 Bubba Chandler cruised through his first three major league games, earning a four-inning save in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-479819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}