Dotel leads the way as Bucs chase perfection vs. Cardinals

PITTSBURGH – Manager Don Kelly had heard reports that Wilber Dotel, Pittsburgh’s No. 12 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was the hardest worker in the club's farm system.

It’s one of the reasons Kelly was intrigued when the team recalled Dotel from Triple-A earlier this month. Dotel was finally given a long leash out of the bullpen Monday night against St. Louis, and the 23-year-old took full advantage of it.

Dotel pitched four perfect innings Monday night in Pittsburgh’s 4-2 loss to St. Louis in the series opener at PNC Park. After opener Mason Montgomery and reliever Justin Lawrence each fired scoreless innings to start the game, Dotel -- albeit in relief -- pitched deep into a game for the first time in his career. The right-hander worked quickly and efficiently, needing just 44 pitches (32 strikes) to get through his lengthy assignment. He struck out three and didn't issue a walk.

“It felt good,” Dotel said through interpreter and assistant coach Stephen Morales. “That’s what I was doing every inning, just concentrating on going hitter by hitter.”

Pittsburgh's bullpen combined to face the minimum through 6 2/3 innings before Alec Burleson got the Cards in the hit column with an infield single off lefty Evan Sisk. The Pirates took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning, but St. Louis struck for four runs on four hits, including a pair of home runs against closer Dennis Santana in his first blown save of the season. The rest of the ‘pen allowed just two hits over 8 1/3 innings.

“It looked really good,” Dotel said. “The bullpen did a really good job. The job is to go out there and get clean innings.”

Dotel threw 18 pitches at 99 mph or faster, with his average fastball velocity sitting noticeably faster than his previous two outings. He even touched 100.5 and 100.8 mph.

“I thought it was the fastball velo [that made him so effective],” Kelly said. “It was over 100 mph at first. It started to trend down a little bit, but still carried at 98 mph through. I thought he did a fantastic job. Mixed in some changeup splits and some sliders, too.”

Dotel recorded a pair of strikeouts in the third inning and added one more in the sixth, but in the middle of his outing, the bulk of the outs he recorded came via soft contact on the infield. The execution improved his already impressive 55.6% groundball rate, per Baseball Savant.

“All I do is just control the things that I can control and stay in the moment, that’s it,” Dotel said.

Kelly said that his rookie’s fastball velocity and elite stuff were two things that stood out to him overall during Spring Training. They also reinforced the fact that he was ready to contribute to the big league club.

“He's really done an amazing job, and there's not one person in our coaching and development that has anything negative to say about Dotel at all,” Kelly said. “Everything that he's put into it, he continues to get better, continues to work on things. We think that there's a really high ceiling.”

Primarily a starter in Pittsburgh’s farm system, Dotel has bounced back since receiving a welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment in which he saw the third pitch of his career soar deep into the left-field bleachers. Pitching in a low-leverage situation with a three-run lead against Tampa Bay, Dotel went on to retire the next three batters in order to secure a Pittsburgh victory. The Pirates were down, 4-0, to the Rangers when he entered in relief last week for the second time in his career, pitching 1 2/3 innings of scoreless ball.

This time, Dotel entered in a tie game, facing meaningful hitters early on. Execution in those situations seems likely to lead Dotel to even bigger opportunities out of the bullpen down the road.

“It feels good,” Dotel said. “I’m proud of the hard work that I’ve put in since Day One.”