Joe Ross made his long anticipated return to the pitching mound against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Heading into that game, the Milwaukee Brewers were 4-0 for the first time since 2006 and were leading the National League in ERA with a team ERA of 2.25. Things were looking bright that day when Joe Ross took the field, and then a dark cloud seemed to descend over American Family Field.
Joe Ross’ highly anticipated return to pitching after Tommy John surgery didn’t quite go as the Brewers hoped.
The 2024 season is Joe Ross’ first season with the Milwaukee Brewers. In 2022, Ross was playing for the Washington Nationals before he injured his elbow and underwent elective Tommy John surgery, a procedure to repair a torn ligament inside the elbow. While this procedure is fairly common among pitchers, the recovery process is intense.
“In most instances, a throwing athlete can gradually return to competitive throwing between six and nine months following a Tommy John Surgery…It routinely takes nine months to one year (or longer) for an athlete to return to competition.”
For Joe Ross, he was able to use the Minor Leagues to supplement his rehabilitation process and get his arm back into shape, but it was 967 days before he stepped back onto a Major League pitching mound again.
At first, as he began pitching again for the first time after two and a half years, it seemed as though he’d never left. He skated through the first inning, throwing in the 90-95 range, mostly relying on his fastball and slider. Then, the second inning came and so did his first walk. It can happen, though, every pitcher has a few that gets away from them. One on base isn’t the end of the world. He quickly answered by striking out the next batter, and it seemed like we were back on track. But then, Joe Ross walked another batter.
It was at this point in the second inning when Pat Murphy came out to have a conversation with Ross. We can only assume he was checking on Ross’ arm, confirming whether or not he felt as though those two walks were just flukes or signs of more to come, etc. Whatever was said, Ross assured his coach that he was good to continue pitching, and with help from his defense, they finished out the inning without any damage to the scoreboard.
In the third inning, Ross takes the mound again, and we see more of a mixed bag. He’s able to strike one batter out but walks another. Then, two batters get hits back to back, but they’re fly balls that are caught by the defense. Unfortunately, the Brewers offense isn’t helping to widen the gap, so the pressure continues to rest on Joe Ross.
Things really begin to fall apart for the new Brewer in the fourth inning. Ross manages to strike out the lead off batter, but then walks the second. The third batter gets a hit off of him, putting runners on first and second. The fourth batter, Kyler Farmer, who has a 2024 Regular Season batting average of .000 so far, steps up to the plate. What should be an easy strike out is suddenly Joe Ross’ fifth walk of the game. And just like that, after 73 pitches, Joe Ross’ pitching debut with the Milwaukee Brewers was over.
Pat Murphy made the substitution, replacing Ross with Hoby Milner, who took the mound with two outs and the bases loaded and closed out the third inning without letting a run score. (Thanks, in part, to a great defensive play by Rhys Hoskins on first base.)
While this certainly wasn’t the start back Joe Ross was hoping for, it could have been worse given the circumstances. For this to have been his first Major League game in over two years after recovering from Tommy John surgery, relinquishing five walks over four innings is honestly not as bad as it could have been. In fact, throughout the remainder of that game against the Minnesota Twins, we proceeded to see J.B. Bukauskas, Bryse Wilson, Joel Payamps, and Thyago Vieira all pitch over the course of four and a half more innings, and while none of these pitchers gave up five walks, they did give up two walks and allow the Twins to score 7 runs, making the final score 7-3.
Hopefully we’ll see Joe Ross on the mound again soon, and he will continue to improve as he continues to recover.
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