2015 ROYALS—Game 1: Astros 5, Royals 2
Yordano Ventura can throw a 100-MPH fastball, but when I ask what to look for when he pitches, I’m told to pay attention to Yordano’s curve.
If Ventura does not throw his curve for strikes, Big League hitters will quit worrying about his off-speed stuff, dial up their swings and that 100-MPH fastball becomes a lot less effective.
OK, got it: to be successful Yordano needs to establish his curveball.
Yordona’s starting against the Astros in Game 1 of the playoffs, but during his eight-pitch warmup, not one of his pitches appears to be a curveball. All I see is Ventura throwing fastballs to catcher Salvador Perez. If the curve is so important, you’d think Yordano might want to throw one in warmups.
No curves in warmups, but Ventura throws one for the second pitch of the game and it’s not a good one: it hangs and Jose Altuve starts things off with a line drive single to left.
The next batter—George Springer—goes 2-2 and when a batter has two strikes he’s at the pitcher’s mercy; the batter has to swing at anything close. Ventura makes three pitches, but Springer fouls off all of them.
When a pitcher gets a lot of two-strike foul balls, it might mean he doesn’t have his best stuff that day; his put-away pitch—the one that starts in the zone and then dives out—doesn’t have that kind of movement today.
Despite having Springer in a two-strike count, Yordano can’t finish him off and eventually walks him.
The third batter is Carlos Correa and now Yordano’s all over the place with his curveball and on the seventh pitch leaves one up and Correa singles—bases loaded.
If the curve is the key to Yordano’s success, so far he’s not putting it where he wants to and two run-scoring groundouts later, the Astros are up 2-0.
Ned Yost Does Not Bring the Infield In
OK, so back up to the nobody out, bases loaded, first inning situation:
If a manager thinks the game’s going to be low-scoring, every run matters, so he might bring his infield in (generally speaking, to the edge of the infield grass) so his defense can make a play at the plate and prevent a run on a groundout.
But bringing the infield in means less range and bigger gaps for a groundball to get through and if that happens, bringing the infield in can turn a 1-run inning into a 3-run inning.
In the first inning Ned Yost does not bring his infield in. He’s gambling that Ventura will cut down the hitter at the plate without the runners scoring or, if he loses that bet, that his team will score more than two runs.
Ned loses both bets.
Yordano Ventura and The Second Inning
After struggling with his curveball and giving up two runs in the first inning, Ventura is back out warming up for the second. This time he throws at least three curveballs in warmups; probably a sign that he wasn’t happy with that pitch in the first inning and is trying to get a better feel for it.
Once the second inning begins, Ventura has better luck locating his curve, but gives up another run on a double and single; both on fastballs. Before Yordano can make it to the third inning, the rains come and his night’s over.
After two innings the Astros have all the runs they’ll need to win; this is playoff baseball. The weaker teams are eliminated, the pitchers get better, the hitters get better and the margin of error gets smaller.
Fail to establish your curveball in the first two innings and your team takes a loss.
The First Kendrys Morales Homer
In the bottom of the second inning Kendrys Morales homers; Colin McHugh falls behind 2-1 and throws Kendrys a cutter.
Two things worth knowing:
1. Cutters are kind of halfway between a fastball and a slider.
2. I don’t trust the pitch identification system in Big League ballparks and you shouldn’t either.
So maybe it was a cutter—probably was—because after throwing three pitches away, McHugh tried to run the pitch in on Morales’ hands and didn’t get it inside far enough; Kendrys homers into the right-field corner.
When you talk to hitters they often know exactly how they’re going to be pitched that night, so sometimes it’s not about throwing something unexpected; it’s about execution of the pitch the hitter knew you were going to throw.
Chris Young, Man On A White Horse
Like he’s been doing all season, after the rain delay Chris Young steps up. He relieves Ventura and throws four innings, striking out seven and giving up just one run on a 3-1 fastball thrown to George Springer. The fastball is supposed to be down and away, but Young misses up and out over the plate.
Still, it’s a very good relief appearance by Young and it’s logical to ask how he does it; Chris throws a fastball in the upper eighties, a slider, an occasional changeup (I count three in four innings) and…wait…let me check…that’s about it.
Ask the people who know and you hear everybody’s fastball is different.
Wade Davis throws nice and easy and then this fastball seems to hit a second gear as it approaches the plate. Kelvin Herrera’s fastball appears to be shot out of a cannon and it’s not a small cannon. Chris Young is long and lanky and delivers the ball in a relaxed manner and then suddenly it’s on top of you.
Being 6-10 helps; Young appears to stride about two-thirds of the way to home plate before releasing the ball, his fastball is heavy and tends to ride up in the zone. It’s an unusual action for a fastball and when hitters see something unusual, they can have a hard time squaring it up.
And Now A Dissertation on Heavy Fastballs
OK, I just said Chris Young throws a “heavy” fastball and that’s a real thing I’ve experienced myself when playing catch with Danny Jackson.
As you might remember Danny was a left-handed pitcher for the 1985 World Series Champion Royals and won another one with the Reds and made it to the Series again with the Phillies, so I’m pretty sure playing on my men’s amateur team was something of a letdown. (And, yes, that’s how Danny finished his pitches.)
Still an incredibly competitive dude and fun to drink beer with after a game…or before…or during. (Lighten up, it was an amateur league.)
Once in a while I’d have to play catch with Danny and “have to” is the right description because while I threw Stay-Puft Marshmallows to him, he’d throw a 16-pound Brunswick back. I never had to hit off Danny—thank the Baby Jesus—but I imagined the guys who made contact, felt like they just made contact with a shotput.
According to the AI killer-robot that answers questions for Google, a ball feels “heavy” when it has a low spin-rate and dives as it reaches the plate, but I don’t trust Google’s AI because as soon as it develops self-awareness it’s going to decide it can live without all us humans asking stupid questions about “heavy” baseballs and how tall Charlize Theron is.
(She’s 5-10 and I got interested because she was in some movie with some short actor, but she wasn’t towering over him, so either she stood in a hole or he stood on a box. Apparently Hollywood actors lie about their height all the time and clearly, we could all use a publicist who lies for us, because after producing a Lifetime’s Worth of half-truths and bullshit, I’m kinda wore out.)
The Rest of The Game
Besides Kendrys Morales’ two homers, the Royals have trouble getting anything going on offense. They have a total of six hits and one walk and that’s not enough to string a rally together.
In the eighth inning Colby Rasmus ambushes a first-pitch Ryan Madson cutter, the score goes to 5-2 and that’s how the game ends.
Astros ace Dallas Keuchel is pitching Game 2 and if the Royals don’t rally and win at least one game at home, it could be a short postseason.