Chi Chi Gonzalez made quite the first impression in his spring debut last week, staking his claim as the favorite to win the No. 5 starter's job coming out of spring training, at least until Yu Darvish returns from Tommy John surgery a month or two into the season.
On Wednesday, Gonzalez wasn't as efficient as that first outing, struggling to throw strikes despite putting up three scoreless frames.
"He wasn't getting the sinker in play as much as he should have,'' manager Jeff Banister told reporters. "He has to work on getting the ball in the strike zone and let the sinker work for him. That's something he knows.''
Gonzalez needed 46 pitches to get through three innings, including 22 balls. In his debut last week, he worked two innings on just 20 pitches.
