Rookie Davis says 'let chips fall' in 1st start Friday for the Pirates

The pain in Rookie Davis’ hip was intense and it wouldn’t go away. But the competitor inside him said, “Keep working. That’s who you are.”

Finally, an imaging of the area in question revealed a torn labrum and bone spurs. Davis had surgery to repair the problem after the 2017 season and missed all of ‘18.

“It showed there was a pretty significant tear that I had been pitching on for two years,” he said.

That’s why Davis is excited — but not nervous — about making his first start for the Pirates on Friday night against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.

Pitching for the Cincinnati Reds on April 26, 2017, at Miller Park, Davis allowed eight runs (seven earned) and 11 hits.

“For me to go back there and face a lot of the same guys that I did, it’s going to be fun,” he said.

Davis said he still doesn’t feel fully recovered from the surgery.

“It takes everyone a different timetable (to recover),” he said. “You have days where you feel great, and you have days where it’s still there a little bit, especially with cold weather and it’s rainy.”

Summer is coming, though, and the Pirates hope Davis gives them the ability to fill out the rotation that has been compromised by injuries to Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams.

“I tempered expectations coming into (this season),” said Davis, who started in Triple-A Indinapolis after the Reds designated him for assignment. “The biggest thing for me is not pushing myself too hard because I did that in 2016 and ended up pitching for two years with a torn labrum on my hip.”

After rehabbing the injury six — sometimes seven — days a week with the Reds, Davis is ready to pitch in a game he can call his own.

“(Friday) is the easy part,” he said. “After that injury, I had to sit down and think when I got home. I had my family there, my girl friend there, ‘Is this really something I want to continue to do? Do I want to push my body again?’ Mentally, can I overcome the hardship I went through, the setbacks, then, obviously, the DFA? That’s no fun for anybody to go through. I’m a very proud person. I couldn’t give up on myself.

“As long as the guys in the clubhouse know I’m going out there and giving everything I have, the chips can fall where they may.”

No football

William Theron Davis III — his dad nicknamed him Rookie because of their love for baseball — said he was throwing as hard as 96 mph during his junior year at Dixon High School in Holly Ridge, N.C.

But at 6-foot-5, 255 pounds, he never played football.

“I just never enjoyed it,” he said. “My size doesn’t really show that. I watch it now, but growing up it was baseball. That’s all I ever wanted to do. My high school football team wasn’t exactly stellar.”

Home away from home

The Pirates are embracing a 10-game road trip, starting Friday with a three-game series in Milwaukee, given their record is better away than at home. The Pirates are 13-18 at PNC Park and 17-13 on the road.

They won 10 of 14 road games last month, including a 7-4 trip that saw them take three of four at both St. Louis and San Diego. The Pirates, however, followed that West Coast swing by losing five of six at home. They split four games at Cincinnati, then lost four of six at home to the Brewers and Braves.

“I don’t know. No matter where we are, we compete and we fight every game,” right fielder Gregory Polanco said. “For some reason, we play better on the road. I have no idea why.”

The Pirates follow the Brewers series with four games in Atlanta and three in Miami before returning home to play Detroit on June 18.

“We’re going there positive, ready to fight, ready to have a good road trip,” Polanco said. “We’ve got a good vibe. Everybody is ready to turn this thing around and go where we were before.”