LAKELAND, Fla. -- In his second outing of the spring, Roansy Contreras escaped a pair of troublesome situations and felt encouraged by what he brought to the table against the Tigers in Lakeland Saturday.
"I felt pretty good. My pitches were sharper this time," Contreras said via interpreter and assistant coach Stephen Morales. "Going out there again, it helps to feel even better. I had a couple walks, but I feel good with all my pitches."
In 2 1/3 innings of work, Contreras walked three batters and allowed a two-out single to Carson Kelly in the second. He threw 49 pitches -- 24 for strikes -- and averaged 94.7 mph on his fastball, while turning to the combination of his slider and curveball on more than 20 of his pitches.
"I felt really comfortable," Contreras said of his utilization of his curveball. "That was one of the reasons why I used it so much today, because it felt good right away."
Contreras was forced to navigate his way through a pair of jams in the opening two frames. In the first, he walked Zach McKinstry and saw Riley Greene reach on an error by Oneil Cruz before inducing a popout and a groundout to come away unscathed.
He got two quick outs to begin the second before a walk to Justice Bigbie and the single by Kelly put runners back on first and second. Contreras benefitted from another groundout to keep the Tigers off the board. To get the three combined outs that got him out of danger, he relied on his fastball to generate two groundouts and went to his curveball to force a popout off the bat of Spencer Torkelson.
I asked Contreras, who walked his third batter and struck out his first of the spring before exiting in the third inning, about those two early jams:
"It’s a teaching moment," he said. "Just in case I run into those situations, which I will in the future, I’ll know how to handle them."
Contreras got to work with Henry Davis for the first time in a spring game after throwing to Jason Delay in his first start against the Blue Jays in Dunedin on Monday. Contreras said he's developed good communication with Davis and feels good with him behind the plate.
According to Davis, the feeling is mutual.
“(Our connection) is good. He was in Florida the whole offseason and I think that’s where you start to see things pay off, especially after spending so much time together," Davis said. "I thought he threw well. I think it was definitely a spring training outing where we’re trying to get some feedback on stuff, but it’s exciting to see how it’s not necessarily always correlated to the outcomes but definitely the progress he’s making. I’m super excited for how he can help us.”
For Contreras, it all comes down to finding his rhythm again and regaining confidence after a lackluster 2023 campaign that resulted in him experiencing a dip in velocity and finishing with a 6.59 ERA and 1.57 WHIP in 19 appearances and 11 starts. There's still room to improve, but he's pleased with how he's started things this spring.
"These two previous starts are definitely going to help me get my confidence back, especially when I struggled a little bit last year," Contreras said. "It’s going to be a confidence booster for my next start."
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