Regardless of role, Stratton aims for consistency

Oct. 13—Chris Stratton is glad to have fans back at Major League Baseball games.

Once the SEC pitcher of the year at Mississippi State, Stratton just posted the lowest earned run average of his MLB career in his sixth big league season, his third with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And he did it in a new role, closing games after an injury to a teammate and notching eight saves.

He was glad to see the Pirates and the rest of MLB progress from no fans during Pandemic Baseball in 2020 to allowing fans in limited numbers to eventually full capacity.

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"I was happy to have fans back and be able to feed on them sometimes while you're pitching," Stratton said.

After a decorated career at Tupelo High School, Stratton enjoyed the love affair that often exists between college baseball programs and their fans.

"It's hard to compare. The fans at Mississippi State are so special, the connection they have with the players, the pride they have in the stadium and in their team and in being loud ... It's hard to duplicate that."

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Stratton doesn't try to duplicate that experience as a professional. He recognizes the college and pro games are different, and he embraces those differences.

Stratton broke in with San Francisco but eventually became the odd man out in the hunt for starting rotation jobs. That made him valuable for the Giants as trade capital. He had brief stays with Toronto and the Los Angeles Angels before the Pirates became his third team during the 2019 season.

Pro franchises and markets have things that make them unique. One of those is the way that the Pirates along with Pittsburgh's beloved NFL Steelers and NHL Penguins all share a black and gold color scheme.

Stratton hasn't made it to a Steelers' game yet.

"Hopefully I can get to one," he said.

One game might be a more reasonable goal than season tickets. Stratton shared the story of an uncle of Pirates pitcher David Bednar, the brother of former Mississippi State pitcher Will Bednar.

The Bednar family is from Valencia, Pennsylvania, about a half hour from Pittsburgh.

"David says his uncle's been on a (Steelers) season pass list since he was 18. He's 51 now, and he's had no luck," Stratton said.

New role, strong finish

The Pirates finished the regular season 61-101, 34 games out.

Stratton, though, had a career-high in appearances with 68, and his 3.63 ERA was his best for a season with more than seven games played.

The combination of the Pirates trading Richard Rodriguez to the Braves plus an injury to Bednar led to Stratton closing games for the first time in his career.

In a mid-September game at Miami with a one-run lead in the ninth he gave up a leadoff triple then struck out the next three he faced.

"He's one of the leaders of the staff," Pirates pitching coach Carlos Marin said, "how he embraces everything just as much as he embraced being that middle guy and giving you that two-plus (innings). He embraces that tough situation or maybe the matchups that didn't go great before."

Part of Stratton's success has been to his command of four pitches, a number unusual for relievers.

The curve and slider are Stratton's most dominant pitches.

Stratton's role next season remains to be seen.

"David Bednar's probably going to be our closer in the future," he said.

"At the end of the day I want to be consistent, and hopefully when I go out there the manager knows what he's going to get out of me each night, just go out there and compete and have a good time."

He hopes to be have a good time with an improving Pirates team, but his own journey showed him how fast addresses can change in pro sports.

"That's the weird part of the game that nobody really talks about. It's not the fun part," Stratton said. "At the end of the day it's a business, and you just have to roll with whatever's presented in front of you."

PARRISH ALFORD is the college sports editor and columnist for the Daily Journal. Contact him at parrish.alford@journalinc.com.