Troy Scribner spent his first month as an Arkansas Traveler trying to navigate around hitters, hoping to avoid giving them anything good to hit.
When that brought sporadic results, pitching coach Scott Budner convinced him to go with a completely opposite approach. Now, Scribner is going right at hitters even with a fastball that barely cracks 90 mph.
"If you pick, you get behind and then the hitters get better," Budner said. "It's real simple."
Scribner was aggressive for the second consecutive start Sunday, retiring the first eight Northwest Arkansas Naturals he faced and didn't allow a run in the Travs' 2-0 victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,484 at Dickey-Stephens Park. in North Little Rock.
Scribner, who joined the Travs in May, didn't allow a hit until Logan Moon's infield single to lead off the fourth inning. He gave up 3 hits, and struck out 6 while walking 2 over 5 2/3 innings while improving to 4-3. It came after Scribner pitched six shutout innings in a victory at Springfield last week, and he's now pitched 11 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings to lower his ERA from 6.25 to 4.27.
"I was getting a little too nit-picky and was chasing corners a little too much," Scribner said. "We just decided to be as aggressive as we can with guys. The kind of stuff that I have, you have to be careful a little bit, but in the end, I'd rather have them beat me."
Jabari Henry's 418-foot home run gave the Travs a lead in the second inning and Stephen McGee walked and scored on Anthony Phillips' sacrifice fly. That's all the Travs got off Naturals' starter Erik Skoglund, and it's all they needed thanks to Scribner, who had been roughed up by the Naturals in two previous outings.
Scribner gave up 4 runs to the Naturals in May 10 and May 16 starts, the second of which he gave up home runs to Frank Schwindel and Jack Lopez. Schwindel doubled off Scribner in the fourth, but struck out in his other at bat, and Lopez went 0-for-2.
"He did a good job of mixing his pitches," Naturals Manager Vance Wilson said. "He's that type of pitcher. He's not overpowering."
Scribner, 24, knows he's not going to overpower batters with a mid-90s fastball. But it was made clear to him by Budner that that isn't necessary to be aggressive with hitters.
"By doing that, he's going to earlier contact and he's getting the job done," Budner said. "It allows you to have a better command when you're attacking, you're pitching with more confidence and you're letting it go and you're loose and you're free. The whole world is different."
Budner hopes it's a continuation of a positive approach after Scribner's up-and-down first month. He didn't allow a hit in his first start over five innings May 1, and pitched five shutout innings on May 26. But he's given up four runs four times and once given up five before his consecutive positive starts.
"The last couple of years in my career have been like that, real inconsistent," he said. "I've had these good outings and I've had these stretches where I've had the bad outings. It's nice where, to get two in a row, and hopefully I can do it again next time."
It was enough to spoil another good pitching performance from the Naturals. After Skoglund held the Travs to two runs over 6 1/2 innings, Kyle Bartsch held them scoreless over 1 1/3. The Naturals' 3.07 ERA since June 1 is third in the Texas League, but their 31 runs in that span span are the second fewest.
The offensive struggles have put the Naturals on the brink North Division title contention with a week to go in the Texas League's first half. The Natruals trail the Springfield Cardinals by 7 games with eight games remaining. The Travs are already mathematically eliminated from the first-half title.
"You've got to look in the face what's in front of you," Wilson said. "Our issue has been offense. Pitching and defense, we've done the things you want to do, just offensively we haven't been there."
Sports on 06/13/2016