Matt Cain pitched great in two dimensions in game two of the World Series Thursday night. First, he kept the ball out of the middle of the strike zone.

Matt Cain pitch frequency, game 2 2010 World Series. Ian Kinsler double overlayed.

Matt also kept the ball from sinking, which helped him get all those easy fly balls.

Matt Cain pitch movement, game 2 2010 World Series. Ian Kinsler double overlayed.

Note that the pitch Ian Kinsler hit for a double, a long fly ball off the top of the wall in center, was not a mistake by Cain. Ian deserves kudos for hitting that pitch as far as he did. It was moving away from him, up in the zone, and near the outside edge of the plate. A little more inside, and Kinsler might have pulled it for a massive home run. Note that Cain also used his pitch sequence to cause Kinsler to just miss as well. He went up the ladder, not only in terms of location, but in terms of drop. Each pitch in the plate appearance dropped less than the previous one.

Otherwise, the Rangers got under balls all night, and all the other fly balls resulted in outs.

See this post on Matt’s ability to keep the ball up.

Thanks to Baseball Analytics for the graphs.