SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) Syracuse Chiefs' John Simms says he pitches better if there's some sort of emotion involved and he proved it on Tuesday night.
Simms pitched a gem while thinking of his hometown of Houston and the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. He struck out nine and allowed only two hits in seven innings to lead the Chiefs to 4-1 victory in a minor league game against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
Simms, who grew up in The Woodlands and attended Rice University, used a silver marker to write Houston's three area codes on his left cleat and HTX, for Houston, on the other.
''There's not a whole lot I can do,'' Simms told The Post-Standard of Syracuse . ''That's probably the hardest part, is that there's nothing I can actually do from Syracuse, New York. But yet these are all the people that I know, and they're going through something that's pretty damn hard.''
Simms says friends back home have endured mostly minor damage.
