Peters impressive in Bucs debut despite loss

PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates have made a flurry of moves in the past few months, trying to identify undervalued or overlooked players who could contribute meaningfully in the future.

Left-hander Dillon Peters made a fairly strong first impression with his new club, allowing two runs (one earned) in 4 2/3 innings in his Bucs debut. The Brewers took the series finale, however, by a score of 2-1 at PNC Park on Sunday.

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“He did what we expected,” manager Derek Shelton said. “He commanded the ball. He did a nice job of keeping a very right-handed lineup off balance.”

The two runs that sent Peters to a loss vs. Milwaukee arguably were plays that should have been made. The first scored on what was ruled a throwing error by second baseman Rodolfo Castro, but first baseman Colin Moran stumbled at the bag and Willy Adames dashed home from second.

The second run scored on a double from Christian Yelich that right fielder Gregory Polanco misread off the bat, drifting in on a ball that was way over his head. Then, Castro threw extremely wide of catcher Jacob Stallings trying to cut down Adames at home plate.

Regardless of the defensive stumbles, the 28-year-old Peters demonstrated why the Pirates felt the urge to claim him when he was designated for assignment by the Angels on July 14.

Peters was scuffling a bit at Triple-A Salt Lake, allowing 12 home runs in 41 1/3 innings over eight starts, but the Triple-A West, formerly the Pacific Coast League, has been a hitter’s friend for years. General manager Ben Cherington said the underlying and park-adjusted metrics pointed toward a pitcher who was better than traditional stats were displaying.

“He has the combination of pitches to get good hitters out and was running into a bit of bad luck,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan. “So we got a chance to get him from the Angels, get him to Indy and just really needed some time to get his pitch count back up.”

The Triple-A West fueled Peters to adjust one aspect of his game-planning. The home run mania in that league led him to refine his changeup, a pitch he said he’s begun to throw fairly evenly to right-handed and left-handed hitters.

Against the Brewers, Peters threw his changeup 40% of the time (30 of 75 pitches), which marks the highest usage in his five-year MLB tenure.

“Every swing's a 1-0 swing in that league,” Peters said of the Triple-A West. “It doesn't matter which count they're in, so the changeup was very effective for me, and I got a lot of misses with it, got a lot of soft contact and kept the ball in the yard.

“I want to be using that changeup a bunch. I'm successful with it. I can throw it for a strike. I can throw it for a mispitch. If they're gonna keep giving me soft contact, there's no sense to reinvent the wheel."

Peters was able to accomplish what he did on Sunday while missing his third pitch: a curveball. The lefty threw only six curves, four for balls, but he was able to work with two pitches with two other key ingredients Stallings felt were to his advantage.

“Deception and command are a good combination,” Stallings said. “He didn’t have his best curveball today, but I think next time, when he hopefully has a better curveball, he’ll be even tougher.”

The Pirates placed right-hander Bryse Wilson on the injured list on Sunday with right arm fatigue, trying to handle his workload and keep his arm healthy after he threw only 15 2/3 innings last season.

What does that mean for Peters? After only a few starts in his hometown of Indianapolis, where he built up his arm after two weeks off in the DFA and waiver-claim process, the Pirates expect to give him some runway in the short term.

Expect to see him get a few opportunities and try to make the most of it in the coming weeks.

"They obviously had some faith in me,” Peters said of the organization. “They told me they were going to build me up since I took some time off during that DFA process. It means that they care about me, and that was enough. Once I was good to go, I was ready to carve for five-plus innings."