Florida Marlins’ Josh Johnson’s spring debut cut short

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Florida Marlins’ Josh Johnson’s spring debut cut short

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/0...-johnsons.html

Marlins ace Josh Johnson was chased early on Wednesday afternoon in his return to the mound after a nearly half-year hiatus.
BY CLARK SPENCER
cspencer@MiamiHerald.com

VIERA -- Josh Johnson waited six long months to step back on the mound and challenge real hitters. It took less than two short innings for him to turn the ball over to manager Edwin Rodriguez and head to the showers.

Making his first start since Sept. 4, when back and shoulder injuries brought his season to an abrupt halt, Johnson struggled in his spring training debut, a loss to the Washington Nationals at Space Coast Stadium.

He gave up five runs, three of them on a tape-measure, albeit wind-aided blast by Roger Bernadina, while managing to record just five outs. He walked a batter. He uncorked a wild pitch. He was charged with a throwing error.

“Obviously, not very good,” Johnson said of the outing, which came to a merciful end with two outs in the second, after he had already totaled 58 pitches.

Johnson’s stat line is not pretty. But neither he nor the Marlins seemed to care.

After all, it was his first start of spring training. They were happy that he was healthy.

“First one for me,” Johnson said. “So it’s going to take a little time. It’s just one of those days. But I’ve got time to work on it. And that’s good, because I’ve got a lot to work on.”

Marlins catcher John Buck said Johnson’s performance was misleading. He said the pitcher decided beforehand that he intended to use the outing to work on his change-up, and anywhere from 10 to 15 of his offerings were changes, including the home run to Bernadina.

“What we wanted to get accomplished, I think we did,” Buck said. “Obviously, he doesn’t throw that many change-ups. He wouldn’t have thrown that many early, or even to some of those hitters, particularly on the home run, or that count. He was throwing a lot of pitches he wouldn’t throw in games.”

Still, Johnson looked nothing like the Marlins’ Opening Day starter.

Although he was successful in getting ahead in counts by throwing first-pitch strikes to 10 of the 12 batters he faced, he had trouble putting them away.

“I feel like I threw a lot of first-pitch strikes,” he said. “But, after that, I kind of went haywire. I was throwing that first-pitch strike. I don’t know what was going on after that.”

The Nationals hitters also frustrated Johnson by fouling off many of his pitches.

“I was throwing balls right down the middle, saying put it in play,” he said. “I wanted to get the [at-bat] over with, or at least see a different hitter. Kept fouling pitches off, fouling pitches off.”

Johnson threw 30 pitches in the first inning alone, an inning that was extended because of a Hanley Ramirez fielding error and Johnson’s own throwing miscue.

Rodriguez expressed no concern at all with Johnson’s performance.

“He’s going to be fine,” Rodriguez said. “The most important thing is he’s healthy. There’s no concern about anything with us.”

Said Johnson: “It just felt good to get out there and finally take ‘em on again. It felt like it had been a long, long time.”

Rodriguez said he didn’t see Ricky Nolasco on Tuesday when he threw off a mound for the first this spring. But Rodriguez said he could tell that it went well just by Nolasco’s behavior afterward.

“His body language will tell everything, and he was bouncing around and having fun, and that’s always good,” Rodriguez said of Nolasco, who had been idled by a jammed right thumb.

Nolasco said he doesn’t see any reason why he can’t start the second game of the regular season on April 2. Said Rodriguez: “[Pitching coach] Randy St. Claire said he was fine, that he was spinning the ball fine.”

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