Vowing to avoid walks, Jimmy Nelson gets hurt by hits
Jimmy Nelson hurt himself so often by walking hitters last season that he admittedly came into this season with the No. 1 goal of not letting that happen again.
That means throwing more strikes, which he says means giving up more hits. Nelson limited that outcome in his first two starts, allowing only nine hits in 13 innings and a total of two runs.
It has been a different story in the last three starts, however. Nelson has allowed 25 hits in 15 2/3 innings, and 16 runs (15 earned) have crossed the plate.
On Saturday night, Nelson surrendered 11 hits and five runs over five innings in what became an 11-3 victory for Atlanta at Miller Park. An error and a passed ball were part of a three-run fifth but Nelson was not charged with any unearned runs.
So, what’s the answer? To hear Nelson tell it, he often has been the victim of poor luck. The hitters are hitting the balls where they can’t be caught.
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“I said coming into this year, I’d do my best not to hurt myself with walks or hit batters, and stuff like that,” said Nelson, who did issue six walks in his previous outing against St. Louis.
“Force contact. Like I said before the season started, if you force contact, there’s going to be more hits. You just try to cut down on the things you can control, which is walks and hit batters.
“More times than not, when guys put the ball in play, it’s an out. But tonight that wasn’t the case… There were some pretty damn good pitches that they hit. It’s not always bad pitches that get hit. They’re paid to hit. They are professional hitters.
“Sometimes, they do their jobs. Sometimes, we do our job. They just did a good job with their job tonight. They put some good swings on some good pitches. There were probably a couple of pitches that I could have had a different pitch selection that might have had a different result.”
The Braves did have some well-placed hits but the two-run homer that Matt Kemp hit to cap a three-run fifth inning came on a first-pitch fastball right down the middle. Kemp would go on to hit home runs off Tommy Milone and Jhan Mariñez as well for the first three-homer night of his career.
Afterward, manager Craig Counsell did not suggest that Nelson was the victim of poor luck.
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“He struggled tonight,” Counsell said. “Pitches (were) up really; he left some fastballs up.
“They’re swinging the bats well. They finished their series in New York swinging the bats pretty well, and they’ve come here swinging the bats pretty well. So, we’re catching a team that’s got a lot of guys hot right now.
“He threw strikes tonight. But he didn’t locate well, and he was up (in the strike zone), for me. There were a lot of mistakes tonight.”
The Brewers’ pitching, in general, has been shaky since they arrived in Chicago at the end of their first road trip. Since the second game of that series, they have allowed 70 runs in 11 games, an average of 6.4 per game.
“We started off a little slow last year with the pitching and they turned around and did a really good job,” Counsell said. “So, I have confidence in the bunch. They’re going to get the ball and have to do the job. These are our guys.
“We need them to pitch well, and we’ll keep working on it… Just turn the page and get it going again.”
As for Nelson, he has decided that walks are the enemy and balls put in play his friends. After that, he said it’s out of his hands.
“I’m not second-guessing myself or my mentality coming into this season at all,” he said. “I honestly feel like I’m at peace with where I’m at.
“I know I’ve done everything I can do in the offseason, physically and mentally. So, now my main focus is just executing pitches. Everything else is out of my control.”