"It's his second spring training game. He's getting his legs under him."
The plan to give the hefty Dominican three innings quickly went awry when Colon, who was only a fastball or two away from escaping the first inning, instead gave up a two-run double to Hideki Matsui on a 1-and-2 count, then unraveled.
By the time Francona sauntered to the mound, asking for his ball back, Colon had lasted just two-thirds of an inning, given up 4 runs, and thrown 41 pitches - just 21 strikes.
"We got to the point," Francona said, "that we started worrying about keeping him out there too long."
On the surface, the results were disappointing, but this is where Francona's plea for perspective comes into play. It's undeniable that Colon had command problems yesterday, but he did catch Jason Giambi looking at strike three with a nasty off-speed pitch on the inside of the plate. That was just after he engaged in a nine-pitch battle with Bobby Abreu before walking him.
Early in the inning, he was clocked at around 95 miles per hour (buy into the accuracy of those numbers at your peril), and that is encouraging. There were reasons to believe when the Angels released him after two seasons of injury-plagued ineffectiveness that he might never be able to generate that kind of velocity again. And now he's smoking at 95 m.p.h.?
"I think that could be about right," confirmed pitching coach John Farrell. "He pitched around 92, 94 miles per hour the last time out. His arm strength is impressive.
"He has progressed to the point where the issue is not health. It's a matter of repetition."
Chew on that statement for a moment. The issue is not health. When Colon hopped aboard with a nonguaranteed minor league deal in February, Sox general manager Theo Epstein termed the transaction a "no-risk, potential high-reward signing." That's Theo-speak for, "Hey, we've got nothing to lose."
