Rick Porcello rediscovers that sinking feeling again

Rick Porcello spent much of spring training attempting a pitching reboot.

He used a specially-designed target to ensure that his pitches were sufficiently down in the strike zone. He worked on back mounds with former Red Sox starter Derek Lowe, hoping to recapture his sinker with some subtle mechanical adjustments. And while he was reluctant to talk about it much, he spent some time reading some sports psychology books to sharpen his focus and mental approach.

What Porcello wanted, chiefly, was to again become the pitcher he had been in 2016, when he won the American League Cy Young Award, and less like the pitcher who last year led the league in hits allowed and homers. Too often last season, Porcello tended to blend his two fastballs together -- the two-seamer rode up in the zone and the four-seamer wasn't elevated enough.

The result? Too many, inviting center-cut fastballs. Worse, he often couldn't rely on his changeup to provide hitters with a different look.

That was then. And now, three starts into 2018, it's as if he rediscovered out to stay out of the middle of the plate.

"I feel,'' proclaimed Porcello, "like me.''

Just ask the Yankees, who managed all of two hits over seven innings, only one of which left the infield, in a 6-3 Red Sox victory. Porcello limited the Yankees to one baserunner -- he grazed Giancarlo Stanton with two outs in the fourth -- over the first six innings, a stretch that included a 48-minute rain delay.

His pitch count at an economical 60, Alex Cora didn't think twice about sending him back to the mound when play resumed.

In the seventh, when Aaron Judge launched a rope over the head of center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.'s head for the first hit against him, Porcello barely noticed that his no-hit bid had been spoiled.

"We were too far away from that,'' said Porcello, smiling at the notion. "Our bullpen was thin; I was just trying to get outs.''

Which Porcello did, seemingly with ease. It was three up, three down in each inning but the fourth through the first six. There were lots of ground balls -- evidence that his two-seam fastball was operating at peak efficiency. There was the odd strikeout -- five mixed in through the first six frames -- and, tellingly no walks.

And this was no easy lineup he was matched against. But with a quick tempo and strong command, Porcello was undaunted.

"Everything was working,'' gushed catcher Sandy Leon. "He was getting ahead in the count, getting early outs. He kept making pitches. He's keeping the ball down. Almost every pitch is working; last year, (sometimes) he'd have two pitches. Now, you can call almost every pitch on any count and he's going to execute (whatever I put down). Rick has been good. He likes to compete, he likes to fight every time he's on the mound.''

Working the bottom of the zone with his sinker and up in the zone with his four-seamer, Porcello tried to give the Yankees different looks, liberally mixing in his changeup and slider

"They have a lot of good fastball hitters,'' said Porcello, "and they hit them in the zone real good. So we tried to expand and get them to chase a bunch. (The slider) was a good pitch for us tonight.''

"He was excellent,'' concluded Cora.

In three starts, Porcello has pitched into at least the sixth each time and sports a 3-0 mark with a 1.83 ERA. It's early, far too soon to declare his makeover a certified success, but the early returns have been encouraging.

If you're searching for omens, the last time Porcello ripped off a bunch of victories to start a season, that, too, was 2016, when he began 5-0.

He may not be looking to specifically replicate that season, but the Red Sox would surely welcome it.