Lost in the story of how he purloined Ervin Santana’s grip assortment early this month to stabilize his season is how Mike Minor found a new pitch to love.
The left-hander had not thrown a sinker very much until last year and became so disenchanted with the results this summer that he all be abandoned throwing the two-seam pitch.
“Last year, about 25, 30 percent of my fastballs would be two-seamers,” Minor said.
Now?
“It’s like 85, 90 percent.”
He grinned as he said it, because the pitch has helped to turn his year around. In his last four starts since skipping a turn the first week of August, he went 2-1 with a 2.22 ERA. In his 10 previous starts, he was 2-3 with a 7.33 ERA. In his last 22 2/3 innings, he has allowed nine hits while striking out 17.
“Mike has always been a four-seam guy,” catcher Gerald Laird said. “Except for his change-up, he never really had anything going down and away to a righty. When he throws his four-seamer, sometime it tends to cut back to the middle of the plate to a righty.
“Now (the sinker) gives him something he can start in the middle and work downward and away and it’s something he can throw to in to a lefty without bringing it back towards the plate.”
Pitching coach Roger McDowell had worked with Minor on developing another pitch but the process picked up steam when Minor compared notes with Santana on how he gripped the ball in early August.
While most pitchers are constant tinkerers, it is not as common that a pitcher will find something that works so well so fast.
“I don’t think it’s that odd (to experiment) when you’ve been struggling,” Minor said. “People are always making changes and adjustments. It’s just one of those things that this year, my two-seamer wasn’t as good.”
Against the Mets Thursday night, he allowed one run in seven innings but also went 2-for-3 with a double and what proved to be the game-winning RBI. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first pitcher since Steve Carlton in 1984 to record two wins in the same season while allowing zero or one run, knocking an extra-base hit and collecting the game-winning RBI.
Not a bad night for a guy who is also redesigning how he pitches.
“I wanted him to do something like that because it gives him that other element, another out-pitch and a pitch he can get guys out early in the count,” Laird said. “Sometimes, he was struggling going deep in the count because he never had that ground-ball pitch. The last couple of outings, he’s throwing sinkers in the middle of the plate down, he’s getting one-, two-pitch outs and he’s able to go seven, eight innings.
“He’s an athlete and he’s one of those of guys who can do things like that. That’s how good he could be. I’m glad for the fact that he’s having success because now he’s going to use and run with it.”
