BOSTON — Allen Webster's velocity would put him in the ranks of the majors' best — if he's able to sustain it once he's a major league fixture.
BOSTON — One, done and a lot of heat.
Right-hander Allen Webster's major league debut, a one-day excursion to the majors, gave the Red Sox mostly what they could have asked for Sunday in a 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Royals. Webster, 23, went six innings, struck out five and let up three runs, two earned, on 84 pitches and a pair of fifth-inning homers.
"I thought he showed great poise, great mound presence, had very good stuff, similar to what we saw in spring training," Sox manager John Farrell said. "With the exception of a couple of fastballs that might have been a little elevated in the strike zone, he did everything we could have hoped in a spot start for us."
After the game, Red Sox catcher David Ross was asked what was so impressive about Webster's stuff. Said Ross, with an acknowledgment of the obvious: "He throws hard. That’s always fun."
According to BrooksBaseball.net, Webster's fastball velocity on Monday averaged 95.45 mph. That figure is based off of MLB Advanced Media's Pitch-f/x system, which might have classified some of the two-seamers Webster threw as four-seamers — perhaps bringing down his average four-seam velocity.
The velocity leader among starting pitchers with 200 four-seamers thrown this season is Stephen Strasburg, at 96.44 mph. Matt Harvey's next at 95.63. It's just one start, but if Webster keeps up that kind of velocity when he arrives in a major league rotation, he'll be one of the hardest throwers in the game. The third hardest thrower on average, Jordan Zimmerman, averages 94.64 mph, below what Webster did Monday.
Webster's velocity stayed steady the whole game, too. The highest he reached was 98 mph.
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Allen Webster didn't see a drop in his velocity Monday in six innings of work.
Webster was in line for a win until the Royals tied the game at 4 in the eighth on a solo home run from Billy Butler against the mostly infallible Koji Uehara. Uehara's streak of innings without being charged an earned run ended at 18 1/3, although that streak does not include any runs he let in that were charged to others — Uehara's let in two this season.
Webster looked headed for a disastrous first inning. Alex Gordon doubled on his first pitch, and Alcides Escobar followed with a grounder to the hole on the left side. Pedro Ciriaco, starting at shortstop, made a great diving stop, only to fire the ball into the Red Sox duguout. Two batters in, it was 1-0.
"I wasn't really expecting a first-pitch swing, but it happens," Webster said. "It was good. I got my feet wet. Once he got on second, I just had to make my pitches and go from there. It felt good."
Then came composure. Webster struck out the Royals' Nos. 3 and 4 hitters, Butler and Eric Hosmer, consecutively, on pitches out of the zone — the former on a 97-mph fastball, the latter on an 86-mph changeup. A groundout ended the inning.
"Once I got through the first inning," Webster said, "(the butterflies) kind of went down a little bit."
"Getting back to the mound presence and the poise he did show, a man at second base with nobody out with a run in, a couple of strikeouts, got out of it without any additional damage," Farrell said. "He was efficient. The six innings was pretty much the extent we were looking at tonight. He did his job."
The next three innings were smooth sailing. A single and a hit batsmen produced the only baserunners, and Webster was at just 44 pitches through four, an excellent pace.
The fifth inning, Webster's second-to-last, brought trouble again. He started with a strikeout of Jeff Francoeur, gave up a home run to George Kottaras, struck out Elliot Johnson, then gave up another homer. That tied the game at 3.
"Couple of unlucky breaks, missed my spots in the fifth inning, gave up some runs," Webster said. "I was mixing all my pitches, and my fastball command was pretty good."
Ross didn't call for many two-seamers though.
"We didn’t throw any front-hip sinkers to lefties, that’s something he’s still working on," Ross said. "Like that two-strike comebacker, so we kind of stayed away from that. I tried to stay mainly away. We didn’t go in too much because I know how hard that is."
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