You know what? Let’s forget stupid bunts, shortstops that don’t run out routine ground balls in tie games, and total infield meltdowns. Instead, let’s turn the clock back to the sixth inning last night, when the Pirates were winning and Charlie Morton was cruising and all was relatively right with the world.
This will probably seem controversial since Morton threw a complete game two weeks ago, but his start last night was his best start of 2011 by a good measure. Morton was awesome last night; he mixed in his four-seamer quite a bit more regularly with his sinker, he threw a hard changeup that came in around 86-87 mph all night that had the Giants crossed up, and he threw both a slider and a curveball. As a result, he got ten swinging strikes on fastballs, one on his slider, and one on his change.
If you were to just glance at the pitch breakdown, you’d think that he laid on his sinker/fastball heavily again (he threw it 72 times in 96 pitches), but check out his velocity graph:
Morton sat at three different speeds last night (92-94, 86-88, and sub-80) and he mixed them up extremely well.
I also love the break chart from last night; you can see how well Morton mixed his fastballs up (quite a few pitches scored as two-seamers were four-seamers, I think). Also, check out the funky movement on Morton’s changeup/slider (I think it might be the same pitch). I was making fun of Bob Walk and Greg Brown for not knowing what the pitch was on the TV broadcast (it’s the pitch that came in around 86-88 all night), but it’s a pretty different-looking pitch.
Seriously, what is that pitch? Brown and Walk were guessing splitter and the break does kind of resemble a splitter, except that I don’t think that’s in Morton’s repertoire and a splitter isn’t exactly a pitch that you just learn overnight. It may have just been Morton using a slightly modified grip on his changeup or something. What was clear was that he was having a ton of success with that pitch last night, using its slight vertical drop and high-80s speed to set up some 94+ fastballs. That combination was what got him a bunch of swinging strikes tonight and it’s definitely something that he hadn’t done a lot of before this game.
Morton’s really been a treat to watch this year. He had a ton of success with his sinker in those first few starts, but it’s clear that both he and Ray Searage understand that 1.) that sort of success wasn’t going to be sustainable and 2.) that Morton has the talent and ability to mix more pitches in with that sinker to really have some success. Now, he’s tweaking things every time he takes the mound and he’s really making some strides. Every time he takes the mound, he does something that convinces me a little bit more that the success we’re seeing is something he’s going to be able to keep doing over the long haul.
As always, hat-tip to Brooks Baseball.
