Chris Tillman's made a career of deflecting praise and stressing his need to work harder and get better. But at this stage of the spring, even the big right-hander has to admit he's doing pretty well.
Tillman lasted four innings Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing one run on four hits while striking out five batters. He threw 63 pitches, 43 for strikes. In his two Grapefruit League exhibition games, Tillman has allowed one run in six innings – and he also threw three hitless innings against the Puerto Rican developmental team.
He seemed particularly sharp – for mid-March anyway – Thursday.
"Yeah, I thought it was really good actually," Tillman said. "Fastball command was really good, changeup got better as the game went, cutter was really good, curveball got better as the game went, so I think that was good, both out of the windup and the stretch."
The only run he allowed was on a sacrifice fly.
Tillman, who is expected to be the club's Opening Day starter for the second straight year, will have two or three more exhibition starts before the real thing starts April 6. So what does he have to do between now and then?
"Keep doing the same thing, I think. Keep building the pitch count up a little bit," Tillman said. "Got to get up there to close to a 100 here by the end. I think, 60 (pitches) in the game and I came down and I threw 12 or 15 more in the bullpen. We're getting there. We're getting there. Just got to get the pitch count up."