BRADENTON, Fla. -- After more than 17 months of healing, rehabbing and fine tuning after Tommy John surgery, Chad Kuhl is finally back in game action for the Pirates.

Kuhl came in to open the sixth inning of the team’s 11-4 loss to the Orioles on Friday. The right-hander allowed a single to Rio Ruiz, induced a groundout of Ryan Mountcastle, struck out Chance Sisco and walked Adley Rutschman. He exited having thrown 23 pitches, but the box score details pale in comparison to what the outing means for him and the Pirates.

“Really good to be on the mound and come away and not be in pain and have this kind of sigh of relief,” Kuhl said. “Just to be able to say it’s not my first time back anymore. The next time I go out, we can move past all this, feel even more like a regular guy, a part of the team.”

“It’s always fun,” fellow pitcher Trevor Williams said of seeing Kuhl’s return, “because those guys work so hard away from the field at PNC Park, and you know how hard they’re working behind the scenes to get back and there. To see them and get to watch Chad today, get back out there, I think it’s something special.”

The mix Kuhl threw Friday was almost his full bag. The righty’s fastball velocity on Friday was a tick off from his 2018 average -- he touched 94 mph vs. a 95.3 mph average in 2018, per Statcast. He left the changeup to tackle another day, but he mixed in his slider and curveball, pitches that were large obstacles in the beginning, but now have become indicators of success in his road back.

“The challenging points were when I threw a slider for the first time, when I threw a curveball for the first time,” he said, “but once I kind of got over that, the fear -- you throw the first one and you’re not in pain -- you kind of move from there. Everything’s feeling good.”

Kuhl’s entering the 2020 season with slightly different mechanics to try to keep his body strong and healthy, including a noticeably reduced arm action in his delivery. He thought the results from Friday’s outing were mixed, but he felt comfortable in the motion.

“I think that the fastball command was just OK. I felt like I was just kind of dancing around the zone,” he said. “I felt like I didn’t fill it up the best I could, but I felt like I kind of stayed within the changes that I tried to make.”

The last time Kuhl faced live batters was June 26, 2018. A lot has changed since then. The Pirates revamped their coaching staff, including the addition of manager Derek Shelton and pitching coach Oscar Marin. They revamped the front office. All these new factors will play a part in determining where Kuhl fits when he’s in regular-season form. He’s been a starter his entire pro career, but workload management may make him a potential bullpen piece to open the season.

But there are bigger steps in his buildup to be made before the Pirates decide where exactly Kuhl will fit into the Pirates’ pitching situation. For now, Kuhl said his expectation is to be on a five-day schedule like a starter, and hopefully get two innings under his belt the next time out.

The coaching and training staff also plans to keep a close eye on him, beyond just the normal needs of physical recovery.

“The one thing we have to be mindful of is not only the day they pitch, but then the next day and how they feel,” Shelton said, “and just be very aware that they’re going through not only the physical component, but also the mental component of being back on the mound again.”

Did Kuhl feel the nerves in his return? First, he quoted Peyton Manning on the subject: “You don’t get nervous if you know what the hell you’re doing.” But in reality, there were always going to be some nerves.

"Of course, we're all human, so you get nerves,” Kuhl said. “But once you get out there, it's just baseball again."