Youman impresses, but loses his Pirates' debut

March 16, 2012 10:29 pm

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By Paul Meyer / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

CINCINNATI -- The money Shane Youman spent to fly eight family members to Cincinnati from his home in New Iberia, La., to witness his major-league debut yesterday turned out to be well worth it.

True, Youman lost his debut -- 4-2 against Cincinnati -- but the Pirates' left-hander performed just fine.

"Not a bad first time out at all," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "He did a very creditable job. Obviously making his major-league debut and facing Bronson Arroyo was not going to be easy, but he did a fine job."

Youman, the Pirates' 43rd-round pick in the 2001 draft out of Louisiana State University, took a 2-0 lead into the sixth inning, but the Reds rallied for three runs.

For the game, Youman, 26, yielded five hits, an uncharacteristic four walks and the three runs in 51/3 innings.

Arroyo was better -- eight innings, four hits, no walks and two runs -- as the right-hander kept alive the Reds' wild-card hopes.

"Bronson was good," Tracy said. "He mixed his pitches very well, but he's been good at doing that for a long time."

Youman walked more than one batter in just one of his seven starts for Class AAA Indianapolis.

"The first three innings, I had the jitterbug," said Youman, who walked a batter in each of those innings. "The fourth inning, I settled down. Then when we took the lead, the jitterbug came back. I was thinking about holding the lead and us winning the game."

The Pirates staged their only offensive threat of the game against Arroyo in the top of the sixth.

Limited to a Ryan Doumit single through five innings, they managed two-out singles by Chris Duffy and Jack Wilson in the sixth. Each moved up on a wild pitch, and Freddy Sanchez's single through the middle scored both.

Youman, however, walked Rich Aurilia on four pitches to begin the Cincinnati sixth.

"He may have been a little defensive in his approach to Aurilia," Tracy suggested.

Edwin Encarnacion dropped a broken-bat single into left-center field.

Adam Dunn's ground ball single into right field drove in Aurilia. A sacrifice fly by David Ross tied the game and finished Youman.

Josh Sharpless yielded a single to right to Brandon Phillips on a 1-2 pitch that put the Reds ahead.

Before the game, Tracy conceded he was eager to see Youman pitch.

"You're always anxious to see a young guy make his first appearance and wet his feet at the major-league level," Tracy said. "There have been a lot of very special players come along in this game who had to make their first of something -- whether it was their first at-bat, their first start, their first relief appearance -- and it goes on from there. I don't know what we have here, but we'll see. You create opportunity."

After just one start, the Pirates hardly know what they might have in Youman, who was primarily a reliever until late last season.

"It's a first step -- whether it's good or really not so good," Tracy said. "Hopefully, there will be a second and there will be a third."

This season?

Some of that will depend on left-hander Tom Gorzelanny's 80-pitch bullpen session today. If that goes well, Gorzelanny, out with left elbow tendinitis, probably will be cleared to make a start against New York next weekend.

However, the Pirates don't want to extend Gorzelanny much, so he could be shut down for the season after that start.

And that could give Youman another start or two in the waning weeks of this season.

"I'd like to pitch at least three more times," he said. "[Not starting again] would be almost like a little tease. This was something to build on. I feel very positive. I can live with pitching every fifth day at the major-league level."

The Pirates made Youman a starter after he proved successful in long relief at Class AA Altoona last year.

"He was throwing at times three or four innings out of the bullpen and throwing 50 to 65 pitches fairly efficiently," said Jeff Andrews, the pitching coach at Altoona last year and at Class AAA Indianapolis this season. "He showed average velocity and a little bit of command of the changeup and the slider.

"We thought, 'Here's a left-handed kid and we have a spot [in the rotation], so let's give him a chance.' He really did well in the second half."

Youman's fastball will reach 90 miles per hour, but he throws comfortably in the 88-89 mph range.

"He's an interesting guy," Andrews said. "He's an athletic kid. He has good work habits. He pays attention. I don't think he's afraid by any stretch of the imagination. He holds runners well. He throws strikes. Wherever there's been an opening, he's taken it and done well."

Youman features the basic pitches -- fastball, slider, changeup.

"I don't know if any of them are swing-and-miss stuff," Andrews said, "but when guys swing at it, they don't seem to make solid contact.

"He's one of those guys that throws a little bit here, a little bit there and then it's a fastball in and it breaks your bat and then the next time up you get a changeup.

"He throws hittable pitches. He fills up the strike zone, but he fills it up with different timings and different angles and in different places. He uses the whole strike zone with his fastball throughout the game.

"He's a left-handed starter. Let's start with that and see where it goes."