That, “Here we go again,” feeling naturally began to creep in — and quickly.
But Feldman got it together, pitching 3 1/3 scoreless innings before his pitch count caught up with him and rookie Barrett Astin was called in to get the last out of the fifth inning.
The bullpen, worst in baseball last season, gave up only one run in the last 4 1/3 innings, and that came on a play that arguably could have been made by right fielder Scott Schebler.
Ultimately, Philadelphia eked out a 4-3 win instead of running away with it.
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Naturally, everyone in the clubhouse wanted to know from Feldman what changed as potential disaster turned into just a slightly below-average start (4 2/3 innings, seven hits, three runs, two walks, six strikeouts) for a 34-year-old with a career ERA of 4.40.
“I felt fine in the first inning,” said Feldman, who signed with the Reds as a free agent in January. “I just made a couple mistakes and unfortunately gave up a couple of runs. I felt fine from the get-go. I warmed up well and felt nice and loose when I went out there. It was great pitching in front of the big crowd and all that, but yeah I just didn’t execute my pitches as well in the first inning.”
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His answers were mundane, but his catcher offered something interesting.
Tucker Barnhart explained Feldman found more success after the catcher started calling for some different combinations of pitches.
“I think it was a little bit more off-speed heavy than it was early in the first couple innings,” Barnhart said. “But that’s just kind of us learning what works — me specifically learning what works for Scott, what gets him back on the right track if his command is going haywire a little bit. But that will come over time.”
That is a little eyebrow-raising considering the nearly team-wide struggles of the first half last season came with Barnhart having to learn a lot of new pitchers on the fly.
He was also dealing with the personal lessons of his first full season in the big leagues.
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The 26-year-old said there is no shortcut for that learning process — but on the bright side, Feldman is more the exception than the rule for Barnhart, who is far more familiar with the pitching staff than he was at this time last season.
Perhaps that will pay dividends as the year goes along.
Perhaps it already has.
“We have video and spring training outings but there’s only so much those can do for you until you step on the field in the big leagues when it matters,” the catcher said. “The next game I call with Feldman is gonna be in five days and hopefully will be a lot more like the third, fourth and fifth inning as opposed to the first and second inning just because I felt like we kept guys more off balance once we started doing that.”
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