Red Sox starter Richard Fitts entered his begin on Monday trying to find his first main league win. It nearly appeared like a curse; he had outings shortened by accidents and rain delays. He even threw 5 shutout innings in opposition to the White Sox, which is as near a assured win as you will get.
He took the ball on Monday in opposition to the Rockies and eventually accomplished his quest. The Rockies are a Main League Baseball crew. They’re not an excellent one, actually, they’re possibly the worst one ever assembled, however the truth that they’re in rivalry for that award means they’re a Main League crew.
Fitts, whatever the competitors, was wonderful. He additionally attacked in a unique method than he often does. Towards lefties he went with a breaking ball-heavy method. He often makes use of his fastball as his major pitch in opposition to lefties and makes use of his breaking balls later in counts. His method didn’t essentially want tweaking; lefties have simply an OPS of .546 in opposition to him in his profession. His strikeout charge in opposition to them is low at 14%, and his breakers haven’t put lefties away successfully. The Rockies don’t hit something, however they particularly wrestle in opposition to breaking balls. That will have been the impetus for the method on Monday.
The slider was efficient, going for 70% strikes. It put Fitts in good counts usually and allowed him to indicate his fastball much less ceaselessly. He earned two strikeouts in opposition to lefties with the fastball and two with the slider. This method may very well be helpful going ahead. He’s tried to make use of his curveball as his “out pitch” in opposition to lefties, however hasn’t missed bats with it at a excessive sufficient charge.
Towards righties, his method was the identical as traditional. He noticed his four-seamer up within the zone nicely and saved his slider on the glove facet. He tried to combine in additional sinkers, although they floated up within the zone somewhat too usually, regardless of being on the arm facet. He allowed 4 hits in opposition to righties, all of which got here on pitches up within the zone.
Let’s check out it in motion. Right here’s Ryan McMahon within the fourth inning.
First pitch, a slider that McMahon is manner out in entrance of. Studying the swing tells you that he was anticipating a fastball, so Fitts could also be higher off staying gentle for the remainder of the at-bat.
Fitts follows it up with a curveball under the zone to even the depend.
Right here’s one other slider, this time on the surface edge. Not precisely what he needed, however an excellent body job by Narvaez steals a strike. With two strikes, Fitts can increase the zone nonetheless he sees match.
Fitts decides to raise a fastball and will get strike three. That is precisely what a two-strike fastball ought to be. 97 mph, high of the zone the place it may possibly’t be punished. When Fitts executes like this with two strikes, the sky is the restrict.
The difficulty for Fitts is that he doesn’t all the time put hitters away. On this recreation alone, he had two eight-pitch at-bats and one eleven-pitch at-bat. The hitters deserve some credit score for fouling off two-strike pitches, however Fitts must discover a strategy to convert strikes into outs at the next charge. Towards lefties, that may very well be a splitter or changeup. Towards righties, his sweeper has been efficient, however he stayed away from it on Monday.
