The right-hander, who struggled mightily in 2022, has changed his pitch mix and is reaping the results.
MIAMI — What made Joan Adon’s 94th and final pitch Friday significant wasn’t so much that he struck out former teammate Josh Bell with runners on the corners to end the sixth inning. It was how he struck him out.
Adon threw a 89.4 mph change-up that started on the outside edge of the plate and tailed away from Bell’s bat. Bell couldn’t help but swing. The crowd groaned. Bell ambled back to his dugout. And Adon beat his chest with his fist two times as he walked off the mound. Adon allowed just two hits, both in the sixth inning, and didn’t allow a run in the Washington Nationals’ 7-4 victory Friday night at LoanDepot Park. The Miami Marlins recorded five hits in a row off Mason Thompson in the seventh after Adon exited and cut the Nationals’ lead from 6-0 to 6-4. But the Nationals held them off, beating the Marlins for the first time this season after being swept in two previous series. The Nationals moved out of last place in the National League East after the Mets fell later Friday night.“His fastball was good. His breaking ball was good. His change-up …” Manager Dave Martinez paused. “His change-up was really, really good today. It made all the other pitches that much better. He attacked the zone. And when he does that, he’s really effective.” The change-up to Bell epitomized what has made Adon a different pitcher this season. A year ago, he relied primarily on his fastball and curveball, throwing them 65.5 and 23.2 percent of the time. This season, Adon has dropped his fastball usage to 39.4 percent and he complements it with four other pitches that are more effective: curveball , sinker , slider and change-up . Manager Dave Martinez wanted Adon to use his change-up more last season when he made 14 starts for the Nationals. But Adon’s lack of trust in his secondary pitches was part of the reason he went 1-12 with a 7.10 ERA and was demoted to the minors in June of that year. That came after he allowed eight runs over three innings in the same ballpark that he pitched Friday night. Much has changed for Adon since.“I feel like I’ve come a long way, especially coming into the same clubhouse knowing what happened last season,” Adon said through an interpreter. “And it was in this same locker that I was at. I did get to the stadium today and think about it a little bit. But today I told myself we’re going to do it today.”Well before Adon’s strikeout of Bell, CJ Abrams showed off how much he can impact a game on the base paths in the first inning. He singled, advanced to second on a groundball from Lane Thomas, stole third and scored on a slow roller from Joey Meneses in the infield to give the Nationals an early 1-0 lead. Carter Kieboom added a two-run home run in the sixth. The Nationals added three more runs in the seventh thanks to a two-run double by Meneses and an RBI single by Keibert Ruiz. Alex Call tacked on an RBI single in the eighth.But Friday night belonged to Adon, who took a no-hitter into the sixth. His pitch mix didn’t lead to many swings and misses — seven in 44 swings — but many of those swings were off-balance. The Marlins only had two runners through the first five innings — one on an outfield misplay when Call and Thomas collided on a flyball, the other when Adon hit Bryan De La Cruz with a pitch in the fifth. It wasn’t until Jazz Chisholm hit a groundball in the sixth that bounced off second base and under Abrams’s glove that the Marlins picked up their first hit. The play was initially ruled an error. Luis Arraez singled two batters later before Bell struck out to end the inning and Adon’s night.“He’s calm, and he’s in control,” Kieboom said. “I’ve seen him do it in Triple-A, and he looks the exact same here. He doesn’t change anything, and he knows what he has to do. He owns it; he owns the mound. … That’s the key to being a great starter, having a stone face, and he’s got it.” After Thompson exited, Robert Garcia pitched two scoreless against the team that designated him for assignment earlier this year. Hunter Harvey earned the save. The Nationals have been one of the best teams in Major League Baseball since the all-star break, improving to 24-15. A common theme in their recent success has been the positive development of their young players. Their progress hasn’t always been linear, but it has been fueled by the little things — such as a well-executed change-up. “He’s got a good one, and he needs to add it and throw it a little bit more,” Martinez said. “But he used it perfectly today, like I said, had some great movement on it. Big moment for him right there. He’s able to strike out Bell, which ain’t easy.”
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