The Pittsburgh Pirates had a huge ask of Wilber Dotel, targeting the 23-year-old right-hander to pitch four innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in only the third appearance of his major league career.
Dotel answered the call, keeping a perfect game intact through the sixth inning by striking out three without allowing a batter to reach base.
“We had targeted four innings for him and we thought that would be the absolute max,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He did a tremendous job of getting there.”
Dotel retired all 12 hitters he faced, averaging 99 mph on 31 four-seam fastballs – including two that topped triple digits – while doing what Kelly called a “fantastic job” of keeping the Cardinals off-balance by mixing in eight changeups, three sliders and two splitters.
“It felt good. My goal was to go hitter by hitter and just do that,” Dotel said through translator and Pirates coach Stephen Morales. “And that’s what I was doing every inning, just concentrating on getting hitter by hitter.”
It helped that he was throwing gas. After getting Pedro Pages to chase a 99 mph elevated fastball, Dotel topped out at 100.8 mph on a four-seamer above the strike zone in the third inning, then hit 99.9 low and away on his next pitch to induce a groundout to shortstop.
“Actually that pitch right there, it got off a little bit, and that was the location, but it went high a little bit on that situation,” Dotel said. “But, yeah, every pitch on two strikes, it’s a high leverage situation and the intensity is higher, for sure.”
Dotel has shown that he can handle the heat, especially after giving up a home run to the first batter he faced, Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero, in the ninth inning his MLB debut on April 19. Dotel responded by striking out Jonathan Aranda, getting Yandy Diaz to ground out and Cedric Mullins to fly out to finish the 6-3 win.
In his second appearance, Dotel overcame one hit and three walks to toss 1 2/3 scoreless innings over the fifth and sixth in a 5-1 loss to the Texas Rangers on April 21.
On Monday, Dotel followed 1-2-3 innings by lefty Mason Montgomery and righty Justin Lawrence to keep a perfect game going against the Cardinals through six innings. Lefty Evan Sisk replaced Dotel and gave up an infield single to Alec Burleson with two outs in the seventh.
“He did an unbelievable job to come in, in that situation and go,” Kelly said of Dotel. “I was really impressed the first outing, of him being able to go give up the home run and get back in the zone with the elite stuff he had – and he showed that again tonight.”
With Braxton Ashcraft missing his start while on bereavement/family leave, the Pirates taxed their bullpen by using eight relievers against the Cardinals. Activating Ashcraft will require a roster move, which could come at Dotel’s expense given that he threw 49 pitches over four innings and won’t be immediately available to pitch again.
Dotel decided to focus his attention on doing his job well.
“It has felt the same since day one,” Dotel said. “All I do is just control the things that I can control and stay in the moment. That’s it.”