Adam Eaton pitched his best game in a very long time Thursday night, and it seemed to come from a change in strategy:
The shutout bid ended when Jim Thome hit a two-run single off reliever Jim Johnson, scoring both of the runners charged to Eaton. It was Thome’s revenge after being struck out three times by Eaton on fastballs. It was Eaton and catcher Chad Moeller’s game plan to pound the strike zone with fastballs and cutters.
“We said before the game we were going to throw the fastball and throw it a lot,” Moeller said. “Try and utilize his cutter and primarily try to pitch with those two pitches. I think it almost shocked them, based on some of the swings.”
Could it be that Eaton’s problems over the last two seasons resulted from being too predictable? It can happen. There’s a story Peter Gammons told the Baseball Tonight crew about a time Rod Carew faced Catfish Hunter. Munson was catching, and just before Hunter delivered each pitch, Carew would tell Munson what the pitch would be and the result. On the last pitch, Carew said he’d hit a double down the leftfield line, and indeed he did. Sometimes a pitcher is good enough to get away with a pattern (Maddux first pitch strikes on the low outside corner), but in my opinion it’s better to keep the hitters guessing. Eaton appears to have done that against the White Sox.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:55 am | Pitchers | Permalink | 1 Comment
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April 24th, 2009 @ 10:59 am
I was watching on my son’s computer for a bit. What struck me is that his ratio of strikes to balls was close to 3 to 1. I think most pitchers, if they’re pitching well, throw about 60% strikes. Eaton’s percentage seemed much higher than that.
I’d love to think that the Orioles have figured something out and got an unexpected bargain. History says that’s unlikely.