Ryne Nelson Shines In Spring Training Debut

The right-hander countered with his own masterful start.

The Diamondbacks took home their first win of Spring, defeating the Rockies 6-2. Despite being shut out in yesterday's contest, Arizona's offense came to life early on, scoring all six of their runs in the first four innings.

Following a dominant one-hit, three strikeout performance from young lefty Tommy Henry over the first two innings of yesterday's game, Nelson submitted his own case in the midst of a battle to determine the D-backs' fifth starter in his first real-game action since November.

"It feels good to get those jitters… kind of get that adrenaline going back again, and getting back into the rhythm," said Nelson, "it’s kind of something you don't really get the feel of in the off-season, so getting that feeling of a game-like environment, it was nice."

While Henry had seemed to be the easy choice to take the final starter spot to this point, Nelson delivered an even better performance than Henry's. Although allowing two singles in the first inning, Nelson set down the next five batters in a row for a strong finish to his outing. He struck out five and induced eight swing-and-misses by Rockies batters.

The swing-and-miss has been a point of emphasis for the young right-hander. While his fastball velocity reached 97MPH, Nelson was able to utilize his secondary pitch--an altered slider--to help generate five of those eight whiffs. 

Although there were a few missed spots, the young right-hander executed his pitches very well overall, and the results are hard to argue. Manager Torey Lovullo praised the D-backs' pitching staff as a whole, but singled out Nelson's outing.

"[Nelson] I thought was really good, the velocity looked like it was spiking, and then he started to mix in a really quality secondary pitch with that slider. I know that's something that I've been emphasizing, I know that he's been working hard at it, and he got a ton of swing and miss on it."

Nelson's slider, listed incorrectly as a cutter on Statcast, is a harder (high 80s), shorter version of his more ineffective sweeping slider. The right-hander said the pitch was a big part of his off-season work, trying to make it look more like a fastball and keeping it tighter to help it miss the bat more frequently. 

"It’s been a focus of swing-and-miss, so I think that the more I focus on that the strikeouts will come. And just execution as well, so I think that those are kind of a by-product of what I've been working on," Nelson said.

Lovullo noted the success of the pitch, and how the differences helped the young arm to induce swing-and-miss in today's game.

"It looked like it had some depth, and it was sweeping across the zone a little bit, I know there was some lunging and reaching going on, and I could see it was missing barrels by falling underneath the barrel," said Lovullo "so he was throwing it right, and did a good job, but it was all set up by a very aggressive fastball that was in the zone."

Overall, Nelson's performance was an encouraging look, and adds a new dimension to the battle for the 5th starting slot.

"I think there were some positives, and a couple things I'd like to clean up. I think there was a couple arm side misses and some glove side misses that, if we’re just sticking with the process those need to be cleaned up. Results aside, I think that it was a pretty good day execution-wise, but definitely some stuff I’d like to work on," Nelson said.

Other Notable Perfomances

As far as the bats were concerned, the D-backs benefited from a solid day at the plate from outfielder Alek Thomas.

Thomas went 2-3, knocking in a run and scoring twice. Most notably, he was able to exceed 100MPH exit velocity with a positive launch angle, even facing a left-handed pitcher. 

Facing southpaws had been a point of emphasis for the left-handed hitter, as he's been generally ineffective against them. However, facing Colorado LHP Joe Rock, Thomas kept his feet set and ripped a single through the gap to left field.

In addition to Thomas, veteran infielder Jace Peterson had a solid performance, going 2-3 with 2 RBI and scoring once. The lefty is coming off surgery to repair a torn meniscus--an injury that plagued him in the latter part of the 2023 season--and looks to have some new pop to his bat.

The D-backs got back to their winning ways offensively, stealing a base and capitalizing on two errors by the Colorado defense to help them put up three runs in a chaotic third inning. 

The Diamondbacks will be back in action tomorrow at 1:10PM, facing off against the Chicago White Sox at Salt River Fields. Right-hander Slade Cecconi will take the mound.

Tommy Henry Excels in First Spring Training Start