A's pitcher Blackburn looking to bounce back from rough start

MESA, Arizona - When it comes to throwing strikes, A’s pitcher Paul Blackburn is usually the last guy manager Bob Melvin has to worry about. But making his sixth appearance of the spring, Blackburn was just off.

Surrendering a home run to Chris Taylor to lead off the game was just the beginning of what was a bad day at the office for Blackburn. He allowed seven runs on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts through 3? innings in Tuesday’s 8-2 loss to the Dodgers.

Expected to begin the season in the A’s starting rotation, Blackburn’s rough outing was probably not enough to change those plans, but it came as a bit of a shock to Melvin.

“It’s by far the worst we’ve seen him as far as the command goes,” Melvin said. “I think that won’t be an issue for him the next time out. He ran into a pretty good lineup and when you get behind and have to throw the ball over the middle of the plate, they’re gonna make you pay.”

Blackburn said he found himself getting in his head and distracted on the mound by constantly trying to make adjustments on the fly throughout his outing.

“I think it was me just trying to fix everything at once instead of focusing on what I should have been focused on,” Blackburn said. “I’ve been working on a lot of stuff in spring and today, nothing was there. I went through my head on about four or five things to try to fix and that’s not the right place to do it.”

Things got so bad for Blackburn in the four-run first that Melvin began to get the bullpen going at one point, as he had recorded just one out in the inning. Blackburn eventually got through it and turned in a scoreless second, but the struggles soon came back as he was ousted in the fourth after allowing three runs in that frame.

Entering Tuesday with a 3.86 ERA this spring, Blackburn’s poor outing ballooned it up to 6.08.

Blackburn will likely get one more start this spring, which will present him with the opportunity to put this ugly start behind him and head into the regular season feeling a little better about himself.

“All together it just wasn’t good. Quality was terrible,” Blackburn said. “I didn’t keep my defense in the game at all. I didn’t even give them a chance. Everything was just bad.”