Athletics' Sean Manaea: Unconcerned despite rough outing

Manaea, gave up six runs (five earned) on five hits and five walks over three innings in Saturday's 11-6 split-squad loss to the Reds, but was unconcerned with the rough outing, Jane Lee of MLB.com reports. "Just trying to nibble too much," Manaea said. "Third inning, I finally just said, 'Just throw it down the middle and let them hit it.' That's all we did. At times I just tried to be too fine and ended up walking a lot of guys."

Analysis:

Manaea managed to limit all of his damage to the second inning and emerged from the outing pleased with how he deployed his slider. He's scheduled for a final spring start against the Giants on Thursday before taking the mound April 4 against the Angels for his 2017 regular-season debut. Factoring in Saturday's outing, Manaea has a 1-1 record, 4.74 ERA, 1.74 WHIP and 15:10 K:BB over 19 spring innings across six appearances (five starts).