First pitch: From prospects to comebacks, 3 things I heard around MLB last week

San Francisco Giants prospect Kyle Harrison

While this wasn’t inside an MLB clubhouse, any time you get the chance to watch a top prospect perform, you take it, and that’s what I did in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.

The top prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization, Kyle Harrison is expected to join the Giants sometime this season and make his MLB debut on the mound. For now, however, the 21-year-old left-hander is working on his craft in Triple-A.

On Wednesday, Harrison drew the start in Oklahoma City against the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. On a cold, damp night, Harrison threw 3.0 innings, scattering two hits and four walks while striking out eight. He allowed just one run despite all of the traffic and told me after the game that one of his focuses for this year is getting ahead of batters early.

“I was trying as best as I could to get ahead of hitters, but that’s something I’ve been running into problems with,” Harrison told me outside the visiting clubhouse. “Hopefully, next time, we’ll try to win that 0-0 (first pitch) against hitters and not fall behind all of the time.”

Harrison refused to put any blame for the walks on the conditions in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, rather saying that, day or night, warm or cold, keeping the number of free passes to a minimum was the priority. In his first five Triple-A starts covering 12.0 innings, Harrison has walked 17 while striking out 20.

“I think, for me, it’s trying to get ahead early. Really attack the hitters and today I didn’t do as good of a job of getting ahead of them,” Harrison said. “But I managed to get myself back in the counts. That was something I did well today, but I’m looking to throw more strikes and really challenge the hitters because free passes are really what hurt me.

“The walks, that’s something I have to figure out and knock down if I want to be able to compete up there (at the MLB level).”