Bubba Chandler admitted that maybe he was trying to do a little bit too much when he displayed struggles with command in walking 10 batters over six innings in a three-start span to begin his spring. In the Pirates' 5-2 win over the Braves here tonight at LECOM Park, Chandler looked more free, attacking the strike zone consistently, striking out eight batters and walking just one in five innings of one-run ball. 

"I think now, it's just let the stuff play," Chandler said afterwards. "Be bold, be loud with it. That's what we did." 

Chandler relied on a fastball-heavy pitch mix in this one. Actually, that might be an understatement. The first 18 pitches he threw were fastballs and he ended up turning to it a total of 49 times, generating 10 whiffs and finishing off five of his strikeouts with it. 

"We talked in the past and anybody can pull up the numbers in the league," Henry Davis said. "Ninety-eight with eighteen carrying above, it doesn’t really get hit. Just kinda said, ‘get the heater across the white, and we’ll be good.’” 

Don Kelly raved about Chandler's performance tonight. Yet, oddly enough, he sees his past struggles as a bit of a blessing in disguise, as Chandler prepares to make an opening day roster for the first time and play a pivotal role within the Pirates' starting rotation. 

"It sounds crazy, but sometimes you wanna see a guy struggle a little bit. See how they're going to adjust, see how they stick with the process and make the adjustment," Kelly said. "There are going to be times during the regular season where we're going to lose that feel at times and you want to learn how to make that adjustment, especially here in spring training in front of five or six thousand people instead of the regular season where there's 40,000 people and you lose that command a little bit. How are you going to learn how to make the adjustment if you haven't been through it?"