Pirates pitcher Archer has a clear mind—and less hair

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Chris Archer is 2 ½ pounds lighter than at the end of last season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander didn’t go on a winter diet, though. Instead, Archer cut off his trademark dreadlocks.

“It was time for a change,” Archer said Friday after a spring training workout. “It was time for something different.”

Archer feels the same way about his pitching. He had an awful 2019 season, compiling a 3-9 record and 5.19 ERA in 23 starts.

Pavement is considering putting in a royalty request.

How Chris Archer, complete with a 5-plus ERA, is setting an example everybody can follow

COMPTON, Calif. — A five ERA will bring you to places, man. A five ERA kicks and spits and leaves jagged marks in places you didn’t even know existed. A five ERA finds you laying rage on top of helplessness on top of hesitation, finds you throwing straight through your shoulder while giving chase to shadows, finds you in that place and looking for footprints that match your shoe size, wondering how you got there.

Chris Archer is working on that.

He’d tied back his dreadlocks with a headband. He wore a gray Pittsburgh Pirates jersey, No. 24. Someone handed him a microphone.

He looked up Saturday afternoon into bleachers spattered by a morning rain, into the faces of little boys and girls in Dodgers caps and Angels shorts and Raiders shirts, and he told them that’s how baseball goes sometimes. That’s how life goes.