Pirates encouraged with how rookie RHP Roansy Contreras battled in return to majors

Roansy Contreras was making his first major-league start in more than a month when the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander ran into trouble in the second inning Wednesday night against the Boston Red Sox.

Contreras was experiencing command issues and, after giving up three runs on four hits and a walk, found himself in a predicament: bases loaded with four-time All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts at the plate.

That’s when Contreras abandoned his bread-and-butter pitch, a four-seam fastball, for his secondary pitch. Contreras threw four consecutive sliders to Bogaerts, who took a ball on the first, whiffed on the second and fouled off the third before going down swinging for the final out.

It was a moment Pirates manager Derek Shelton pointed to as “an encouraging sign” that the 22-year-old pitcher was able to navigate the Red Sox lineup “with essentially one pitch” in the 8-3 loss. Contreras allowed four runs on six hits, four walks and three strikeouts.

“I think that was the big thing,” Shelton said. “Normally you don’t see young starters being able to navigate a lineup that has good hitters like that and a couple guys that are really locked in. He was able to use the slider when he needed to effectively.”

That Contreras tied a career high by going six innings despite not having his best stuff was a positive for the Pirates, who shut him down after a 4-2 win July 7 at Cincinnati amid concerns about his workload after a lost minor-league season in 2020 and a two-month stint on the injured list with right forearm discomfort last summer.

“We said when we sent him out that he was gonna be back,” Shelton said. “We just needed to build him back up and give him a little bit of a blow.”

After a 19-day period between starts, the Pirates had Contreras build back up at Triple-A Indianapolis by gradually increasing his innings with each start while working on his mechanics and refining his pitch repertoire. His best performance came in a 6-1 win over Louisville on Aug. 5, when Contreras recorded nine strikeouts and gave up one run on three hits without a walk.

“Throughout this experience and the moves and my time in the minor leagues, and also my experience pitching up here, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that there’s always going to be moves and decisions that you may not understand or that just kind of throw you off, but (it’s important to) remain focused on the mission,” Contreras said through translator Mike Gonzalez.

“Continue working, remind yourself daily why you’re here, why you’re doing this and just continue working hard and giving the best you have. That’s what I have control over. That’s what I can provide, just the best that I have, and everything else, just take it as a learning experience.”

Contreras didn’t give up a hit in four of his other five innings, allowing a run on two hits in the fifth to drop his record to 3-3 and push his ERA to 4.02 in 10 starts. Despite the loss in his return to the majors, Contreras took comfort in proving he could fight through adversity in a second inning he called a “straight-up battle.”

“Something I always take away from innings like that,” Contreras said, “is that no matter how that inning may go, whether it’s a positive or a negative, you just have to continue finding ways to battle and not let those things discourage you, remain focused, stay true to the plan and just trust the process, continue to battle.”