SARASOTA, FLA. — Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman threw three strong innings against a Pirates "B" squad on Sunday morning in front of less than two dozen scouts and members of the news media. Despite the lack of fanfare, Gausman had a productive outing.
He allowed one run on three hits over three innings, at one point retired eight straight batters against a Pirates lineup that included regulars Pedro Alvarez and Gregory Polanco.
"I felt like I had command of every one of my pitches," Gausman said. "That's the biggest thing right now. Also, it was my first time going three innings. It was pretty hot out there too for how early it was. That was the biggest thing I was concerned with, was if I was going to be ready to start the game, being that we never play games at 10 o'clock in the morning. That was something I wanted to focus on the most more than anything."
Gausman said he's continued to concentrate on the feel of his slider, which he threw six times -- five for strikes – and got two swing-and-misses.
"I threw some great ones today," he said. "I'm definitely getting more comfortable with it, really just going back to what I was doing with it coming out of the bullpen, throwing it, trusting it and trusting the grip."
Gausman said he'd like to get to the point where he'd confident with the pitch in the way he was pitching out of the bullpen in 2013.
"I think as a reliever there's a better margin for error," Gausman said. "I picked (Andrew) Miller's brain last year a lot and his philosophy was 'I'm either going to walk you or get you out or strike you out.' And that was kind of his mentality. He never gave in, so that was my mentality as a reliever. Obviously as a starter, you have to throw strikes. There definitely is a difference, but it's pretty cool because in certain counts I get to go back to that reliever mentality where I'm like, 'Alright, I'm going to throw this one in the dirt and see if he swings at it.' That's how I felt today. I threw some good sliders in the zone. ... That's what I was happy with today.
"I would love to have it as a put-out pitch also, but I think I'm always going to be a fastball-changeup guy," Gausman said of the slider. "If there's a lefty in the box, I'm not going to throw to many lefties back-foot sliders like some guys do. … I'm going to go to my fastball and changeup, but definitely to right-handed hitter I think it's going to be one on those swing-and-miss pitches for me."
Gausman was initially going to be held to a 45-pitch limit, but the Orioles allowed him to work out of a 30-pitch third inning. He finished with 50 pitches, 32 of them strikes. He said he will likely work up to four innings in his next outing.