baseballdelusions.com

The result of this game was not pretty - we got shelled, 18-6. Lots of walks by the pitching staff, poor baserunning, and bad play in general.

On an individual level, I felt pretty good about one of my three AB’s today. The first one was pretty bad, as I struck out swinging after looking at two strikes and a ball. The second at-bat resulted in an infield single RBI, but it was hardly a good swing or AB.

The third AB was the best AB I’ve had since joining the amateur leagues, bar none. They brought on a hard-throwing lefty reliever with a sharp breaking ball, a cut fastball, and a straight four-seam fastball. As a general rule against lefties, I like to swing at the first pitch I like, rather than taking to see what the pitcher’s got. I have a sick platoon split against lefties - I love hitting off them, I pick up the ball really well, and as such, I want to attack a first-pitch meatball down the middle. Sure enough, he threw a cut fastball middle-in for the first pitch and I fouled it straight back. He then threw a straight fastball outside, which I fouled down the first base line. He threw me two cut fastballs inside that missed for balls, and then the following pitch sequence occured:

Fifth pitch: Middle-out fastball, low. Fouled it down the first base line.
Sixth pitch: Breaking ball middle-in. Fouled it into the dirt.
Seventh pitch: Straight fastball under the hands. Killed it foul down the third base line.
Eighth pitch: Cut fastball middle-in. Fouled it sky high and out of play.

I was feeling really good about the at-bat - really battling against a tough lefty with good command and velocity. He noticed that my bat control was good and that I wouldn’t strike out on a pitch in the zone, so…

Ninth pitch: Straight fastball shoulder-high. Strikeout, swinging.

I was geared up and wanted to kill it, and it’s easy just to blame myself for swinging at an obvious ball, but I have to give credit to the pitcher here. He identified a likely weakness due to my contact abilities at the plate and attacked it. I feel really good about this at-bat, even if I struck out - the process is what I care about, and my pitch identification was excellent throughout the AB, sans the last one.

I pitched two innings after the game was blown out and my control wasn’t great, but the stuff was finally there. My shoulder and body is at 100%, and the fastball was good. I went 2 innings pitched, gave up no hits, struck out three batters, and walked three batters. Slowly, but surely, things are getting better.

Stats update forthcoming. Three games this weekend - hopefully my arm will be in use!