Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rich Hill had plenty of thoughts rattling around in his brain when he allowed two runs on his first four pitches of his outing against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday.
Those thoughts, though, might not have been safe for a television audience to hear.
“You give up a base hit, and then you give up a home run and there were a few things going through my head,” Hill told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “It would have made an interesting mic’d up session for NESN.”
Things got much better for Hill after allowing the two-run home run to Bryan Reynolds. The 42-year-old lefty turned in a strong bounce-back performance to earn the win with Boston topping Pittsburgh, 8-3. He tossed five innings, allowing just those two runs on three hits while striking out four and walking none in first outing since Aug. 9.
Hill didn’t just keep the Pirates at-bay after Reynold’s round-tripper, he shut them down, retiring 12 straight batters. He showed tremendous poise by not letting his less-than-ideal start to the contest faze him.
“I just noticed I kept the ball up a little bit,” Hill said. “The ball didn’t come out of my hand the way I wanted to right away. And as the game was going on, it started coming out the way that I wanted to. So I would say, although yes efficient with 75% strikes or whatever it is, but first couple pitches of the game just kind of came out a little bit under water.”
It’s unclear when Hill will start next with the Red Sox pushing Nathan Eovaldi’s spot in the rotation back due to injury. But whenever Hill takes the mound again, him being mic’d up could provide even more entertainment.
