Game 43 - Pittsburgh Pirates (Charlie Morton) at Cincinnati Reds (Bronson Arroyo)

• thavoice

  I dont know the exact numbers, but I know late in the game he had thrown a first pitch strike in less than half of the batters, which USUALLY results in disaster.
  
  but not for him last night. He has that heavy fastball and when as a batter is up in the count 1-0 he is looking for that FB, it comes in and looks good...then drops outta site.
  
  Reds are a HR hitting team....
  
  I didnt watch it very closely last night. Did the reds swing at alot of pitches outta the zone for their first strike? Maybe a guy who has a ball who moves/drops alot they may have been smart to take a strike for a while until he proved he could get ahead in the count. I dont know.
  
  
  Def seemed like they were just coasting.........and they figured that sooner or later they would make a comeback as usual.
• se-alum

  

  thavoice;773752 wrote:I dont know the exact numbers, but I know late in the game he had thrown a first pitch strike in less than half of the batters, which USUALLY results in disaster.
  
  but not for him last night. He has that heavy fastball and when as a batter is up in the count 1-0 he is looking for that FB, it comes in and looks good...then drops outta site.
  
  Reds are a HR hitting team....
  
  I didnt watch it very closely last night. Did the reds swing at alot of pitches outta the zone for their first strike? Maybe a guy who has a ball who moves/drops alot they may have been smart to take a strike for a while until he proved he could get ahead in the count. I dont know.
  
  
  Def seemed like they were just coasting.........and they figured that sooner or later they would make a comeback as usual.

  They swung at alot of pitches out of the zone period. Morton rarely throws anything that would be a strike if it wasn't swung at. Yea, his ball has alot of movement, but the Reds hitters should know by now that it does. Patience is crucial against a guy like that.
• thavoice

  Wonder how many guys took strikes then. It may seem trivial and such but with a pitcher like him you may have to start doing that.
  
  Now...if all of a sudden you start getting lots of guys down 0-1 in the count then that is different. I know late in the game he threw first pitch strike on less than half, and I have to wonder even those he DID throw first pitch strike was it a swing of one out of the zone.
  For a different reason, teams started to do that with Chapman, but a it can work on a pitcher like last night. Make the pitcher come to the hitter, and not the other way around.
  
  Start laying off that diving FB and he has to come with something more in the zone.
• jordo212000

  

  That was a quick game last night.
  
  I still wonder what Heisey did to Baker. His lack of PT is inexplicable.