It wouldn’t be fair to lay this at the feet of Aaron Blair because this often is what happens with young pitchers. They can make a mistake in the minors and still draw a pop-up. They make a mistake in the majors and the ball screams off the bat and flies 400 feet in a millisecond like something off NASA’s assembly line.
“Take some deep breaths, try to make some pitches,” Blair said he told himself Thursday after a 30-second therapy session on the mound with Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell.
“Obviously the next pitch, I didn’t make a good pitch, and it went over the fence.