The Matt Allan comeback tour continues.
The hard-throwing right-hander was back on the mound for the St. Lucie Mets on Saturday night, and he looked very strong again -- allowing just two hits and striking out three across 3.2 scoreless innings of work.
Allan hit the second batter he faced in the bottom of the first and allowed a stolen base, but he quickly retired the next two on just six pitches to strand the man in scoring position.
He picked up his first punch out of the evening to finish a perfect second, and then worked around a one out double in the third, before finishing his outing with a man on first and two outs in the fourth.
Allan threw just three more pitches than last time (47) and he topped out at 96 mph.
The 23-year-old former top prospect has now racked up eight strikeouts and 7.1 scoreless innings of work over his first two appearances since returning from a six-year absence due to numerous different arm injuries.
The organization plans on taking things slowly with him this year to keep him healthy. But if he continues pitching like this, there’s no reason that he won’t take the next step in his journey soon enough.
“Given everything Matt’s gone through, every time he takes the ball we’re happy,” David Stearns said last week. “He deserves to be happy and he deserves to enjoy it. Let’s get to the next outing and then after that let’s get to the next one and we’ll go from there.
“What I will say is what he is doing right now is really impressive -- he is demonstrating why he was so sought after in the draft, and why he has kept pushing so hard for the last five years to get back to this point.”
