‘Erratic' fastball dooms Owens vs. Yankees

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BOSTON - A few hours before Wednesday's game, interim manager Torey Lovullo spoke highly of the poise Red Sox rookie pitcher Henry Owens has shown on the mound in just four major league starts.

There would be no such talk after the game, a 13-8 Red Sox loss in which Owens was chased after just 2 2/3 innings.

Instead, it had to do with an "erratic" fastball that either missed by too much, or stayed right over the plate.

Owens threw just three first-pitch strikes to the 12 batters he faced - and one of those was ripped for an RBI single.

All in all, he allowed seven earned runs in the short outing, giving up six hits and two walks.

He retired the first four batters of the game, but fell apart from there. After walking Chase Headley, Owens allowed back-to-back home runs to Greg Bird and John Ryan Murphy, turning a 1-0 Red Sox lead into a 3-1 Yankees lead.

And it just kept getting worse. In fact, the only other out of the inning for Owens came on the bases when Brett Gardner got caught in-between second and third after a Chris Young RBI single.

Alex Rodriguez then smacked a 3-1 pitch down the left-field line to score two, and that was it for Owens.

"It wasn't his best day, we all know that," Lovullo said. "Started off very strong and then I think he got a little erratic with his fastball, started spraying it around and fell behind in counts. And it happened pretty quick and they jumped on him."

It was a surprise to see Owens rely on his fastball so much when he's been good about throwing off-speed pitches to get himself out of trouble in the past. The first four run-producing hits for the Yankees' all came off Owens' fastball. According to MLB.com, of the 53 pitches thrown, 35 were fastballs.

"I felt when I was mechanically sound I could command the fastball with both sides of the plate in the first inning and a little in the second," Owens said. "But I think there was some counts I fell into where rather going to an off-speed pitch that got me back on track mechanically, I tried to stick with the fastball and it was a mental lapse on my part and I'll learn from it."

The learning process has already begun. While Owens will surely look into his outing further, he already had a chat with Lovullo during the game in the dugout.

"Anytime you have some immediate feedback that can help you process stuff and move forward, whether it's positive or negative, I think if you interpret it in the right way you're going to be in a much better place," Lovullo said. "In my discussion with Henry quickly in the dugout, he knew that his fastball command wasn't where it needed to be and he highlighted that as a reason why he didn't last through the second inning. And I think he'll learn a valuable lesson as to how important that is."

While Owens cost the Sox a win on Wednesday, these are games the Sox can afford to lose especially if it means one of their young pitchers can grow from it.

"[I can] learn to not let an inning speed up and get out of hand too early and just recognize situations where I need to know how to get back on track quicker," Owens said.

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