After Kurt Suzuki caught each of R.A. Dickey’s 11 starts in the first one-third of the season, Tyler Flowers agreed it was only fair that Flowers take his turn behind the dish for the always-challenging and humbling task of catching the knuckleballer.
And so, Flowers was behind the plate Thursday night when Dickey and the Braves faced the Phillies in a series finale at SunTrust Park. It was the first time Flowers caught the knuckleballer since handling one of his spring-training starts, but Flowers also caught many of his bullpens in the spring and caught his between-starts bullpen session this week.
“It’s going to happen at some point, right? Why not today,” Flowers said before batting practice Thursday afternoon. “I don’t know what I’ll say about it after the game, but right now I’m excited.”
Suzuki and his majors-leading seven passed balls had a reprieve, after the affable veteran was charged with two passed balls Saturday in a 12-inning win at Cincinnati. Suzuki also was hit squarely above the left hip by a pitch in that game and has a dark bruise that’s now a few shades of purple. He’ll likely catch Friday night when Julio Teheran faces the Mets in a series opener at SunTrust.
“It’s tough. That last game he had in Cincinnati, he got his butt kicked,” Flowers said. “Then I went out the next day and got my butt kicked, too, so I didn’t feel so bad for him. But yeah, it’s a mental grind, too. Zuke’s been playing well himself, you know? It’s only fair that he gets to focus on some conventional things instead of just swatting at a knuckleball.”
It only seemed fair that if nobody could catch Dickey, then everybody should have to. Although, truth be told, Suzuki has done an admirable job at the thankless job of catching Dickey’s starts, particularly for someone who’d never previously caught a knuckleballer.
But if Suzuki were forced to miss any time, Braves manager Brian Snitker and his catchers agreed it made sense for Flowers to also have experience catching the knuckleballer.
“I thought about that the other day when he was getting the crap beat out of him in Cincinnati,” Snitker said. “I was like, you know, he’s maybe not even a DL away from somebody else having to catch him. It’s two-fold — at some point, somebody else is going to have to catch him. And give Kurt a little break. Because, I mean, it’s tough. It’s hard and hard on you. And Tyler has been catching (Dickey) a lot, all his pens in the spring.
“Talking the other day with all them guys (they catchers and Dickey), they’re like, yeah, let’s try it. Because at some point in time it’s going to happen. So go ahead and do it now.”
Flowers didn’t pretend that he figured things out after catching one of Dickey’s spring starts and some of his bullpen sessions.
“I remembered feeling OK about it,” he said. “That can quickly go away. Couple of pitches you can say, all right, I got this. And then you miss one and then you miss two and it’s like, I don’t have this. You just try and be level-headed, that’s part of it. We talked again the other day out of his bullpen. Some of his good (knuckleballs), you’re going to be lucky if you catch them. Otherwise just hurry up and (retrieve) them.
“Most of them, if you focus on the little things — waiting as long as you can, quick reactions, letting it get to you before making a decision on where it’s going to end up — I think the better your chances are.”
Flowers scoffed when someone asked about figuring out where a knuckleball was going.
“(Dickey) doesn’t know what it’s going to do, either. Just like I don’t,” he said. “You just try to react to it. I don’t think there’s any real technique or even necessarily a skill. Wait on it, react, stick it if you catch it, stick it you don’t catch it, hopefully I get some strikes called and hurry up and go get it. I mean, there is no other way to put it in human terms, I guess.”
Suzuki’s seven passed balls have equaled his career high in 10 previous seasons — with nearly two-thirds of the season to go.
“If you tried to catch (a knuckleball) once you would get it, you’d understand the challenge of it,” Flowers said. “From the outside we just look silly back there, but it’s not very easy.”
