By Bryan Bloodworth
BLOOMINGTON – Despite not getting the win in his major league debut, former Illinois State and Normal West High School product Brock Stewart was fairly satisfied with his performance Wednesday in Milwaukee.
“I felt good about the outing as a whole; just that one inning,” said Stewart. “In the second inning there were a couple of cheap hits that led to things spinning out of control a little bit and things spin a lot faster at this level. I left a couple of balls out over the plate that inning and they don’t miss them here.”
After a perfect first inning, Stewart gave up all five of his runs in the second inning before settling down to shut out the Brewers the next three innings. In all, he struck allowed eight hits while striking out seven and walking two.
The performance drew praise from manager Dave Roberts and former Dodgers’ pitcher and Cy Young winner Orel Hershiser.
“He could tell I was a little frustrated, but he wanted to put things into perspective,” added Stewart. “He told me I didn’t do a bad job at all. He said I competed and held myself and had a lot of poise on the mound. He really likes that way I throw and the team didn’t help me that much.”
Hershiser, now a broadcaster for the Dodgers, made it a point to look Stewart up after the game.
“He said he really liked my fastball. It’s one of the best to come up through the system in years,” said Stewart. “He thinks I have a really bright future. He gave me his phone number. It was really, really cool for him to do that. I’m definitely going to be in contact with him and try and learn and develop from his advice.”
Stewart pitched well enough to earn a second start Monday, the Fourth of July, against Baltimore in Los Angeles.
“I haven’t been told otherwise,” he continued. “I’ve been told to plan on starting then, so that’s what I’m going to do. I know this industry everything can change in an instance. I’m just going to take it day-by-day just like I was doing in the minor leagues and we’ll see how it goes.”
Stewart also was overwhelmed by the large number of fans from Bloomington-Normal, who made the trip to Milwaukee to see him in his debut.
“When I ran out for my first inning of work I could actually hear a pretty good roar,” said Stewart. “It was pretty cool to know that you had that support. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for their support. It was definitely very special to me.”
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at [email protected]
