The line on Aaron Harang's first spring start indicated it's a good thing he has 26 days left to prepare for his Opening Day outing.
Facing the Diamondbacks during a 10-4 loss, Harang gave up three earned runs and four hits over 1 1/3 innings with one walk and two strikeouts. He was scheduled to work three innings but reached his pitch limit of 50 too quickly.
That's the unpleasant news. The good news is there were things about the outing that pleased Harang and manager Dusty Baker.
"I felt like I was throwing some good pitches early on," Harang said. "They were just working the count. It's tough when you fall behind. You have to come in and throw strikes. It doesn't make it any easier."
"He threw the ball well," Baker said. "He centered some balls when he got two strikes but the main thing is we were pleased with the way the ball was coming out of his hands. He had more velocity and better rhythm and tempo. He'll be all right."
Harang has started the previous four Opening Days for Cincinnati but enters 2010 with a combined 12-31 record and 4.52 ERA over his previous two seasons.
Since the offseason commenced, Harang has made several adjustments to his delivery. He is using his long legs more to add power to his pitches and said he added "six or seven inches" to his stride.
Harang will make his next start on Sunday morning during a "B" game against the Indians. The outing was scheduled before the right-hander took the mound on Tuesday.
"There's still some fine tuning of stuff from the way I've pitched for so long and to mechanically make some adjustments," Harang said. "It's not going to work overnight. I still have stuff to work on but that's what spring is for. The ball felt like it was coming out free and easy and I was just missing. It's still a long spring. The biggest thing is just building up the pitch count right now."
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