The better Braves right-hander R.A. Dickey is pitching, the tougher it is for Kurt Suzuki to catch him.
That’s the reality for receiving a knuckleball pitcher like Dickey. His signature pitch was breaking late and moving unpredictably on Saturday night against the Pirates, leaving Suzuki little time to react even on knuckleballs in the strike zone.
Suzuki had three passed balls in the 6-4 Braves loss. Some passed balls are probably inevitable when Dickey is pitching but Suzuki’s were magnified because two of them led to a Pirates run in the sixth inning that put the Braves in a 6-3 hole.
The passed balls and two Braves errors led to three unearned runs against Dickey.
“Some days (the knuckleball) is good, some days it’s really good and some days you get the hang of it,” Suzuki said. “That one inning it was more shaking than really diving. That’s the tough ones because I don’t know if they’re going to go down or cut. Try to do better next time.”
Dickey revived his career when he started using the knuckleball as his primary pitch in 2010. He adds another degree of difficulty for catchers because he can throw it as fast as 80 mph, significantly harder than usual.
Dickey paired with catcher Josh Thole while pitching for the Mets and Blue Jays. Dickey signed with the Braves in November and primarily worked with Suzuki during the spring. Tyler Flowers and Luke Recker also took turns getting used to Dickey’s knuckleball.
Suzuki and Dickey developed a rapport during the spring but their regular-season debut as battery mates was rough.
“When you throw ones that can move in multiple directions with velocity, it’s hard,” Dickey said. “So I have a lot of empathy for him. No one works harder at it than he does. Unfortunately (Saturday) there were a couple that came in crucial situations, but he will get better.
“He wants to be good at it. He’s got the right mentality. I am not worried about him or Tyler. They will fight hard to figure it out and at the end of the season you are going to say, ‘Hey, these guys became really good at it.’”
