WooSox pitcher Darwinzon Hernandez smiles in the bullpen before a game against the Rochester Red Wings on Friday, May 13, 2022. (Katie Morrison / MassLive)

WORCESTER -- A few weeks ago, Darwinzon Hernandez looked lost on the mound.

He struggled through 1 2/3 innings on the road at Syracuse, giving up five runs on just one hit but four walks and a hit batter.

That low point came five days after Hernandez turned in a dominant performance, and he’d given up just one hit and no runs in his last two outings (six innings).

It was last week in Toledo when Hernandez really started to find his footing again. Coming out of the bullpen for the first time this season with Worcester, Hernandez walked the first two batters he faced, and then settled in to allow just one more walk while striking out four.

“Minus the first two hitters where it was two walks and eight pitches. And then after that it was literally electric. Best we’ve seen him throw all year,” Tracy said of his outing in Toledo on May 8. “He completely locked in. I think he had one additional walk, but it was very competitive. I believe it was a 3-2 walk, very close pitch that went for ball four, just off the outside corner that could have gone for strike three. And he struck out four those next two innings. He got into a rhythm. You could see it, it was like, get the ball back on the mound. Breaking ball, fastball, everything was in the zone.”

“I think he came out a little over, like it was a real relief appearance. He was gonna go three, like a start, but he took it as like, I’m gonna come out of ‘pen, I’m gonna throw 99 [mph] and so that affected the first two hitters,” pitching coach Paul Abbott said. “But after that, the work that he’s been doing is starting to show up. We saw more strikes after the two walks. He was competing and throwing strikes a lot better. We’re seeing the changes.”

Hernandez built on that relief appearance on Friday night at home, this time shifting back to the starting role he’s been in all season. The lefty walked one and gave up an unearned run thanks to his own throwing error and a double. He struck out four and looked in command of all of his pitches.

Abbott has seen improvements in Hernandez’s preparation since his rough outings a few weeks ago.

“It went from probably from a three to a 10, and it was probably about a 10 day process,” Abbott said. “We’re starting to see the results. We’re going through bullpens with all the data.”

Tracy said that he hasn’t seen Hernandez’s confidence wane even through the struggles.

He doesn’t lack any confidence. He’s a fiery guy, when he’s out there loves to compete,” Tracy said. “Darwinzon’s here for a specific reason. He knows what that is. He’s working hard with Abby in between his starts. For him, he goes out there with a specific focus in mind...he knows what he needs to do.”

WooSox recognize suicide prevention efforts

The WooSox honored the memory of Zachary Ford, who was a key member of the Jesse Burkett Little League team that went to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn. in 2002. Ford committed suicide at the age of 20 in 2011. The Ford family, led by mother Rosemary Ford, established the 365-Z Foundation, which provides ideas, guidance and resources that “encourage, inspire and challenge us all to perform an act of kindness every chance we get.”

The subject matter of suicide strikes close to home for a lot of people, including Tracy.

[I have no] message other than I’ve experienced it. I think there’s probably more people out there than many think that have experienced some type of connection with somebody who’s gone through that,” Tracy said. “I happened to have lost my very best friend when I was in my second year in pro ball to suicide. I’m talking like my best friend, one of my best friends. But for those of us that knew him well, the years after that, what people went through and, and still I think about him every single day.”

That friend was Cal Berkeley student and baseball player Cyrus Allizadeh. Allizadeh was finishing up his degree at Cal when he died.

“I’ll say that when that occurred, it was so out of left field. I had no idea,” Tracy said. “I was like, ‘you’re kidding me’ when I got that call. So the message I would send is you just never know what people are going through. When you see people that maybe are down in the dumps or whatever, like sometimes just putting an arm around them, you know, a friendly arm around them might go a long way.

“Because I think anybody that’s gone through that probably plays the game in their head of like, man, should I have said something? Should I have done this? Should I have done that? So a lot of personal experience on that one.”

Tracy met Allizadeh when he moved to California with his dad, Jim Tracy, who was managing the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“When I moved to California, when my dad was with the Dodgers, he and I became best friends through high school. I moved there when I was a sophomore. We were very best of friends,” Tracy said.

Tracy said after that after going through that experience, it opened his eyes to others who may be in need.

“It’s where you see something going on and it’s not necessarily like you run up there and say, ‘hey, you need to call this hotline,’” Tracy said. “Just be there for somebody. Be a shoulder to somebody like, ‘Hey man, you wanna go grab something to eat?’ or whatever it is just to kind of shine some light on somebody’s day. You just never know. It might do the trick, you know? I looked at things in a very different perspective after that.”

Tracy’s advice to others who may be in the same situation his friend was in is to ask for help.

“Reach out for help. Don’t be afraid,” Tracy said. “I think in my mind probably, and I don’t know this because I haven’t gone through that, but I think a lot of this stigma is probably like, should I be ashamed of reaching out? You know? I think there’s a lot of people that go through a lot of things and if you’re going through something, it’s in no way a bad thing to reach out to somebody for help. Because there’s a lot of people that go through stuff. I would encourage people to do that because there’s probably somebody there that’s willing to help you.”

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (User Agreement updated 1/1/21. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 5/1/2021).

© 2022 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.

Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.