Alex Young produces solid outing in first start of season

Aside from a Fernando Tatis Jr. home run in the first inning, Arizona Diamondbacks left-handed pitcher Alex Young put up a solid outing in his first start of the 2020 season.

Young, starting in place of the injured Madison Bumgarner, finished the outing with 4.1 innings, four hits and one run.

Manager Torey Lovullo let Young pitch to Trent Grisham to start the fifth inning before replacing him with Kevin Ginkel.

Young finished the day with 63 pitches, 42 of them strikes. He also laid down strikes on 15 of the 18 first pitches.

Lovullo said ahead of Young’s start that he expected Young to throw between 70 and 75 pitches and the plan would be to monitor how he progressed toward that mark and how he handled those pitches. He said he didn’t want to put the 26-year-old in a bad situation.

Young only found himself one bad situation, which came in the fourth inning.

Eric Hosmer and Jurickson Profar both hit singles to get on base and Young walked Jake Cronenworth.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Francisco Mejia hit a ground ball to Nick Ahmed who got the out at second.

Lovullo told reporters before Saturday’s game that Bumgarner is scheduled to go through a 50-pitch simulation game on Monday. Bumgarner is working his way back from a mid-back strain.

“Knowing that he feels good is exciting for all of us and we’ll see how everything goes on Monday,” Lovullo said.

The D-backs went on to win 7-6.

Arizona will look for the series sweep Sunday. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

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