Stat Line: 6 IP, 3 R, 10 H, 4 SO, 0 BB
Last night, Bartolo Colon pitched well in the New York Mets 3-0 to the San Francisco Giants as he allowed ten relatively soft singles coupled with poor defense both by himself and the Mets infield. In this article I will discuss how Colons fastball command correlated to poor contact by Giants hitters and the reason Colon should throw his changeup more often to keep opposing hitters off balance.
Very Little Hard Contact
Although Colon surrendered ten hits, he exhibited strong command of his fastball low in the strike zone which as I have noted in past articles is the catalyst to his success. This allowed Colon to either jam Giants hitters on the inside of their bat or force the ball to be struck off the end of the bat due to his which created a poor and medium combined contact percentage of 84%.
Additionally, Colon did not allow an extra base hit or a walk during his six innings of work.
Need More Changeups
As noted in the SNY broadcast, Colon has struggled mightily during the middle innings of his outings when he faces the opposing lineup for a second and third time through the batting order. Colon has pitched to a 7.41 ERA during the fourth inning, a 6.32 ERA during the fifth inning and a 8.10 ERA during the seventh inning. The reason behind this is during the course of Colon’s outings he can become too predictable due to his 85% fastball usage rate. If a Major League batter knows he will see multiple fastballs at a non-overpowering velocity of 92 mph or below, they will wait for and jump on the fastball regardless of the location.
Colon threw only seven changeups but over his last few outings he continues to create outs on first pitch changeups as seen in last night’s game in Angel Pagan’s fourth inning fly out to centerfield. Given the amount of fastballs Colon throws, he should game plan three to five first pitch changeups during the second and third times through the opposing teams batting order. This will keep the opposing hitters, which have seen a plethora of fastballs the first time through the order, to either respect his changeup which result in them taking more fastballs for strikes or swing out in front of the changeup which will induce more outs.
Stat of the Night
Thanks to @brooksbaseball, Colon threw 42 of his 50 two-seam fastballs (sinkers) for strikes, a strike rate of 84%.
Follow Chris Zaccherio on Twitter @ziography for more Mets pitching insight that goes beyond statistics.
