Trevor Bauer ready for home start against Padres

Arizona Sports News online

The Diamondbacks have a wealth of good young arms, both in the minors and on their major league roster.

Due to various injuries and such, those arms have had to be quickly pushed into action, like pitcher Trevor Bauer, who made his major league debut last Thursday in Atlanta against the Braves.

Bauer pitched quite well in his four innings of work, giving up five hits, two earned runs and three walks to go along with three strikeouts.

Bauer suffered a minor groin injury, which was part of the reason why he was lifted when he was.

“I’ve dealt with it all season, it’s been something that’s nagged,” Bauer said. “I thought I’d gotten rid of it, but it kind of popped up again. It feels completely fine today, so I’ll be ready to go.”

Bauer, as you can imagine, has a lot of weight to carry on his shoulders, being just 21-years-old, and so highly touted coming out of the 2011 Amateur Draft.

What’s made the transition smooth for Bauer has been the support from his teammates.

“They’ve all been very complimentary, a lot of congrats and welcomes,” Bauer said.

Bauer said the guys have been quick to give him advice on what to do and what not to do, a “preemptive strike” in Bauer’s words.

Bauer is well aware that all eyes will be back on him on Tuesday night, as he makes his home debut against the Padres, but he also knows that the “luster” will eventually wear off.

“It’ll be nice to get that out of the way, so that attention can go back to focusing on what the team is doing instead of just me personally,” Bauer said.

As far as his game routine goes, he said if management came to him and asked him to tone it down or take something out, he would listen.

“I’m open minded,” Bauer said. “If they explain to me ‘we think this, or we think that’ I may play around with it.”

Bauer said he hasn’t been approached about changing his routine yet.

“It’s never been set in stone,” Bauer said. “I add and subtract on my own, based on where my body’s at.”

Bauer said he hopes he’s on a pitch count on Tuesday night, a large one at that.

“We haven’t talked about it at all,” Bauer said. “Hopefully it’s 250, but that’s probably not realistic.”

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