Lack of swing-and-miss and a subpar slider became more evident after Friday's hammering...
Photos of the victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, are shown on a video display at T-Mobile Park Friday, May 27, 2022, during a moment of silence before a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros in Seattle.
SEATTLE — A spectacular start to his season hid the work Justin Verlander still must accomplish. He climbed atop the American League leaderboard in every imaginable statistic, stoking hopes for another Cy Young campaign following his two-year absence. He flirted with no-hitters on three separate occasions. Verlander appeared in his most vintage form. Not once did he agree with the premise. Verlander downplayed nearly no-hitting the Minnesota Twins earlier this month, claiming felt “fortunate” to even be in the situation given the stuff and superb defense behind him. His next start arrived after four days of rest, clearing another benchmark in this season he so often calls a case study. He struck out five Nationals across five scoreless innings, but in the aftermath pitching coach Josh Miller offered a warning. “I’d say he’s not as sharp as he’s accustomed to being, which is scary because he’s been so good,” Miller said on May 16. “There’s some things he can tighten up a little bit.” Miller proved prescient on Friday night. The Mariners revealed Verlander’s marginal problems masked by the magnificent eight starts that preceded it. Seattle and its once-sputtering lineup struck four home runs against Verlander and handed him one of his worst starts as an Astro.6-1 loss . “They were swinging it tonight. They weren’t missing pitches. It was their night. You just have to chalk it up to a bad night.” Baker’s outlook is rational. One poor outing does not diminish anything Verlander accomplished during the first eight. He still possesses a 2.03 ERA. Entering Friday, only seven major league starters had a lower one. Opponents are still batting just .188 against him, even after Seattle struck 10 hits across the six frames Verlander worked. The Mariners exposed two of Verlander’s season-long problems: his lack of swing-and-miss and a subpar slider. Verlander has acknowledged both issues after other starts this season, but neither difficulty ever derailed an entire start. Success made it somewhat moot. Friday, it became the story. Verlander generated 60 swings from Seattle’s lineup on Friday. Twelve were whiffs. The 20 percent whiff rate is concerning, but part of a trend that’s permeated his season. Verlander entered Friday’s game generating whiffs just 23.3 percent of the time. His whiff rate exceeded 31.6 percent in both 2018 and 2019. After causing a 30 percent whiff rate during his last start against the Rangers — one of his highest this season — Verlander called it a “combination of things” contributing to his missing swing-and-miss. “I think the stuff is just getting better,” Verlander said after that start. “My velocity is starting to creep up, which if you have to respect 97 or 98 versus 94 or 95, you have to commit just a little bit earlier. I think that makes the offspeed stuff a little bit better.” Verlander averaged 94.8 mph with the 47 four-seam fastballs he threw on Friday. He did not command the pitch well at all, preventing him from establishing leverage in counts or collecting swing-and-miss. The Mariners whiffed only three times on their 30 swings against his fastball. Often, in outings when Verlander doesn’t have his best fastball, he can turn to his slider to steady himself. He’s never been able to this season. Two of Seattle’s four home runs on Friday came against the slider. The Mariners took 17 swings against it and whiffed six times. Verlander throws his slider more than any other secondary pitch. It is the one he relies upon most for chase and putaway pitches against righthanded hitters. He received at least a 39 percent whiff rate against the pitch in both 2018 and 2019. This season, it is producing just a 33.1 percent clip.
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