GLENDALE, Ariz. – Bartolo Colon continued his comeback trail on Monday, as well as showing that wearing black isn’t necessarily slimming, as the right-hander took the mound in a Cactus League game for the first time in 2009.
Colon, who was signed to a $1 million contract with incentives that can earn him an additional $2 million in the offseason, got Royals leadoff hitter Coco Crisp to fly out to left field on just two pitches and then it was all down hill.
David DeJesus walked on six pitches, followed by an Alex Gordon RBI triple. Kansas City put a second run up on the right-hander with Ryan Shealy’s sacrifice fly. Colon then got out of the inning when John Buck struck out looking.
Colon’s velocity looked OK, but his location was all over the place in the 18-pitch first inning.
The plan for Colon, who is coming off of a cleanup surgery on his right elbow, was to pitch just one, but he came out for the second to get some more work in.
That he did, but not necessarily good work.
He walked Mark Teahen to start the inning, then Ross Gload singled. After getting to pop outs, Crisp had an RBI single to end Colon’s afternoon. Of his 40 pitches, 22 were strikes.
Mark Buehrle relieved Colon, finding himself in unfamiliar territory as not only a reliever, but trying to clean up Colon’s mess.
