Michael Brady had been struggling, but Eduard Santos had not been.
The roles were reversed Sunday at Dickey-Stephens Park. Brady threw six shutout innings and exited with a lead before Santos gave up a two-run home run to J.T. Wise in the seventh inning as the Frisco RoughRiders beat the Arkansas Travelers 2-1 in front of an announced crowd of 3,286.
The loss, however, didn't put a damper on Brady's return to good form, and pitching coach Pat Rice said he wasn't too concerned about Santos, who entered Sunday having not allowed a hit since June 11 and hadn't allowed a run since June 4.
"He's been outstanding," Rice said of Santos. "You're not going to get every guy out. Occasionally that's going to happen. He'll be back in there again."
Brady, who moved from the bullpen to the rotation six weeks ago, was coming off two poor outings after giving up more than one run once in his first six starts.
But Brady gave up four runs in a July 2 loss at Midland and six runs in a July 7 loss at Frisco.
Brady and Rice sat down after that Frisco loss to watch film of a delivery that became altered when Brady's right arm dropped down to the side. In a Thursday bullpen session Brady concentrated on keeping his right arm as high as he could, rather than having it drop down removing a preferred angle from his pitches.
"So that makes my cutter go down instead of sideways, and my fastball has more plane to it," he said. "It's a lot harder to see for the guys hitting."
Brady, 28, said he didn't feel completely comfortable while warming up Sunday, but it was difficult to tell once he entered the game. He retired the first six batters he faced, pitched around a single and a double in the third, a one-out double in the fourth and gave up a one-out single in the sixth. Brady struck out a career-high nine batters in lowering his ERA to 2.95 since being moved to the rotation May 26.
"I just think he got a little out of whack," Rice said. "It was an easy fix. He's very intelligent, and he picks things up very quick."
Brady said he wasn't all that worried about two rough outings either, nor did they cause him to have concern about his move to the rotation.
"It's just something that happens over the course of a season," he said. "Sometimes you get tired, sometimes you fall into some bad habits. It's all about being able to identify it quickly and making the adjustment."
Brady could have earned the victory, but the Travs left runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings. They scored their first run in the sixth when Jared Mitchell and Anthony Bemboom each singled and Cal Towey, in his first game since being activated from the disabled list, hit a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.
But Wise gave Frisco a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh, and the Travs were held to one hit over their final three at bats. They were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position Sunday and are 8 for 42 (.190) in such situations since the start of the homestand Wednesday.
"I think we'll be OK," said Mike Micucci, the Travs' acting manager during Bill Richardson's weekend vacation. "We keep putting ourselves in those spots, and we keep getting guys on base eventually we'll come through."
Sports on 07/13/2015