Newcomb pitches well in third spring start

Sean Newcomb with another solid outing in Florida

The Sean Newcomb to the rotation experiment continues to produce great results. Sunday in Tampa against the New York Yankees, Newcomb pitched four scoreless innings. He allowed three hits, walked two and struck out four.

Newcomb now has now allowed two runs in nine innings (2.00 ERA) in his three spring starts, with two walks and 11 strikeouts.

The Braves hope Newcomb can return to the form he had in 2018 when he made 30 starts. Newcomb was 12-9 that season with a 3.90 ERA. He allowed 137 hits in 164 innings, with 81 walks and 160 strikeouts.

Obviously, Newcomb must cut down on his walk-rate for him to have success in the rotation. Last season working mostly as a reliever, Newcomb’s walk-per-nine-innings rate was 3.8 compared to 4.4 in 2018. That mark was 5.1 in his rookie season, so it has continued to go down from when he first became a big leaguer.

Newcomb had a 3.04 ERA in his 51 games as a reliever in 2019, but he told the Braves late last season his preference was to return to the rotation. That helped Atlanta target Will Smith in free agency, believing if Newcomb was again a starter, they would have a need for another left-handed reliever.

The Braves have Mike Soroka, Max Fried and Mike Foltynewicz in the rotation. With Cole Hamels out for perhaps the first quarter of the season, they need another lefty to step up and Newcomb is doing that thus far in the spring.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. ET on Middle Georgia’s ESPN. You can listen online at TheSuperStations.com. Follow Bill on Twitter at @billshanks and you can email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.