Simms serves up emotional gem for Chiefs

John Simms saw the devastation Hurricane Harvey brought to his hometown of Houston, Texas. Hundreds of miles away with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, he felt powerless to ease the suffering back home.
With a silver marker, the Nationals right-hander wrote Houston's three area codes -- 713, 281, 832 -- on one of his cleats. On the other, he wrote HTX for Houston, Texas. Then he did what he does best -- pitch.
Simms (2-4) allowed three hits over seven scoreless innings as the Chiefs topped the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 4-1, on Tuesday at NBT Bank Stadium. He notched a season-high nine strikeouts while issuing three walks.

The 25-year-old grew up in Houston and attended Rice University. His parents live just north of the city, while many of his former college and high school classmates still reside in the area. The 25-year-old said he has heard from a number of them, many of whom escaped the storm with minimal damage.
"The one really good thing that is going on right now is that power outages have not been a big issue," Simms said. "People have power, people have cell phone service, for the most part. The people that I've been able to get a hold of are doing OK and nobody has had serious damage that I know of.
"But that's such a low bar that we're setting: 'That I know of.' People are losing everything they own and there is not a whole lot anybody can do about it right now. And there is such a threat for even more if more rain comes. It's just a helpless feeling even calling someone and going, 'Hey, are you OK?' Even if they aren't, what can I do? I'm playing baseball."

I'm not with y'all, but I'm with y'all tonight. #Pray4Houston #HTX #713 #281 #832 #home pic.twitter.com/pTUScKHtcE

— John Simms (@JDSimms13) August 29, 2017

The 2013 11th-round pick channeled his emotions into shutting down the IronPigs. He notched at least one strikeout in all seven innings while never allowing his opponents to advance beyond second base.
Gameday box score
"I felt like when I hit spots, I hit them very well," Simms said. "When I made mistakes, it felt like they had extra life through the zone. Either with breaking balls and they didn't square them up or with fastballs up over the plate and they swung underneath them. It was just one of those nights where you get a little lucky and you also make some pitches and it all rolls your way.
"I don't know if a baseball game is ever going to help a situation like this, but I've always pitched better on emotion. Tonight, I had a lot of emotion. I was thinking about them out there between innings and on the mound. They probably helped me more than I helped them."
Simms said he plans to wear the same cleats for his final start. Once the offseason begins, he will wait to hear it's safe to drive into Houston before heading home to help with what he acknowledges will be a long healing process.

"My family is fortunate, but there is going to be a lot of people in Houston that aren't as fortunate and they're going to lose so much," Simms said. "It's going to take some time and we can't forget about these people. We need to be there for them throughout this entire process. That's what we need to do as a community and rally around each other to bring everybody back up."
• Get tickets to a Chiefs game
Rafael Martín took over for Simms in the eighth and gave up a solo homer to Phillies No. 4 prospectJ.P. Crawford. Austin Adams fanned one in a scoreless ninth to notch his fifth save.
Brandon Snyder hit a solo homer for Syracuse while Rafael Bautista went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
Jake Thompson (5-14) gave up four runs on eight hits and one walk while fanning six over seven innings for the IronPigs.