The Texas Rangers are counting on Matt Harrison to be a No. 1a, or even a co-ace, in their starting rotation along with Yu Darvish.
And while spring training outings always have to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt, Harrison's spring debut last week left a lot to be desired as he surrendered four runs in just one inning of work before hitting his pitch limit.
It's always a good sign when a pitcher has to head to the bullpen after his outing to finish up his pitch limit in the spring, and that's what Harrison had to do on Saturday as he made it through his scheduled three innings of work on just 39 pitches before heading to the bullpen to reach his projected count of 55.
Harrison had said after his bad first start that he was working too hard on one specific pitch, and wasn't so concerned with getting outs, which is often the case in spring training, but even still, he was happy to have much better results in his second start.
"It was a good outing -- especially coming off my last start, when I was getting beat up in the zone," Harrison told ESPN Dallas. "I was focusing on getting the ball down, trying to get the ball on the ground, which I was able to do today more consistently."
