Jim Schlossnagle on Jared Spencer: "I think he'll be fine"
Texas ace Jared Spencer started for the No. 1 Texas Longhorns against No. 8 Auburn in the Thursday night opener of a Southeastern Conference series, but only lasted 2.2 innings on 43 pitches before he was pulled by pitching coach Max Weiner and head coach Jim Schlossnagle.
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Even though the image of a pitcher leaving after 43 pitches is a frightening one, Schlossnagle was not concerned about Spencer long term. In his mind, it was just soreness that was the culprit.
“I think he’ll be fine,” Schlossnagle said on Thursday night. “We’ll have some people look at him tomorrow. Obviously, we’ll handle him with kid gloves. Short rest. Was a little concerned bringing him back on short rest. Said he felt great yesterday. Said before the game he felt good in his pregame bullpen.”
Spencer gave up a two-run home run to Ike Irish in the third just before he was pulled, and Schlossnagle noticed a dip in velocity.
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“He doesn’t throw fastballs at 92,” Schlossnagle said. “He throws fastballs at 94 to 97. The home run was a 92 mph fastball. Then I looked at Max (Weiner), and the next pitch was 91. Obviously, he was a little sore. Hopefully it’s nothing. The beauty of us getting him out of there on Thursday is we’ve got plenty of time to rest him even if we had to bump him back to the back end of next weekend or skip a start.”
The Longhorns picked up Spencer via RBI from Ethan Mendoza, Jalin Flores, and Kimble Schuessler. Mendoza brought Tommy Farmer IV around on a third inning single, Flores doubled in the sixth inning to tie the game at two, and Schuessler crushed a 1-2 breaking ball to the left field bullpen to give Texas a 3-2 lead.
Max Grubbs pitched 4.1 innings of shutout ball in relief to earn the victory. Dylan Volantis pitched 2.0 perfect innings to net the save and give Texas its 14th SEC win, the most in the conference.
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Texas and Auburn will battle again at 6 p.m. The game will air on SEC Network Plus.
