Kevin Millwood threw 88 pitches (56 strikes) in his five innings of work against minor league hitters in today's intrasquad game. He struck out seven, walked two and gave up three runs in his final inning of work, but looked much sharper than in his two exhibition outings.
"It felt good,'' Millwood said. "It's nice to be able to go out and work on things and not worry about keeping guys (teammates) out there forever. Everything got better again today."
Pitching coach Rick Kranitz agreed.
"I liked what I saw,'' he said. "Every time he goes out there he closes the gap, the circle gets a little big smaller as far as where he needs to be. He got a lot out of today. We're starting to see some consistency in his release point and good life on his pitches. It's coming around."
Millwood's fastball was clocked at about 88 miles per hour and was up in the zone some with it. He concentrated heavily on his curveball, in one at-bat throwing it four times in a row to strike out minor league infielder Tyler Henson.
"It was good,'' he said. "There were a couple of times when I tried to throw it for a first-pitch strike and missed, but I thought it worked for me today. The last inning, I was trying to work on my changeup some more."
Johnson needed just 10 pitches to get through his first of two innings, but gave up a two-run home run to Brandon Waring the second time he took the mound.
Highly regarded left-handed prospect Zach Britton pitched two scoreless innings, but struggled with his command and threw a lot of pitches..