Nothing seemed to go right in Steven Matz‘s start against the Washington Nationals on Monday night. The 29-year-old pitcher started off the game strongly but cracked under the pressure as he gave up run after run, eventually being charged with eight runs on three home runs over the 4 1/3 innings he pitched in his outing.

After making it out of the first inning unscathed, Matz went into the second allowing a single home run to Asdrubal Cabrera, but eventually making it out without any more damage.

In the third inning alone Matz allowed two separate two-run homers to Trea Turner and Juan Soto, with Matz being unable to effectively command his fastball. The pitcher managed to make it through the fourth inning but completely fell apart, struggling to retire a batter and eventually being charged with three more runs with the bases loaded as he was taken out of the game.

The majority of Matz’s issues stemmed from an inability to locate both the velocity and placement of his off-speed pitches, which gave the batters he faced an easier time calling his pitches.

During the post-game interview, Luis Rojas expressed his concerns in regards to Matz’s performance, not being worried about the pitches themselves as Matz “stuff wise, looked good.” Despite that Rojas said he did notice that Matz’s mechanics were off and he seemed to “hold back” on his velocity and his mechanics were “slowed down,” leading to Matz’s pitches being tipped to the batter.

Matz explained that he felt that he was at the best he had ever been going into spring training, but the results just haven’t been there. He continued to say that he is going to keep working with his pitching coaches, as well as talk to the batters on his team as a way to get inside a batter’s head and learn more about what tells they look for when they face a pitcher.

Most of the mechanical issues with Matz’s pitching were on his curveball which he seemed to hold back on, his motion not being as fluid leading to a decrease in velocity, giving batters an ability to see more easily how the pitch is going to hang.

The left-hander is now sporting an ugly 8.20 ERA in his first four starts of the 2020 shortened season.