ALTOONA, PA – When the Altoona Curve take the field on Wednesday night for Game One of their Divisional Series matchup with Akron, they will be led by a pitcher who, only two months ago, would’ve been very low on the list of potential playoff starting pitchers for the Curve.
Alex McRae didn’t just fall in line to the first game of the Altoona Curve’s 2016 playoff campaign. He earned the opportunity to get the ball.
After pitching to a 2.69 ERA and .641 OPS-against in Bradenton from April through the beginning of June, McRae earned a promotion to Double-A Altoona. Unfortunately, that run of promising pitching did not stick in his first six starts for the Curve, with his ERA quickly jumping to 10.25 (!) through 26.1 innings into the beginning of July. McRae was getting hit – and hit hard – as batters had a .388 BAA and 1.100 OPS-against off of him in those first six starts.
You would hear talk around the ballpark that McRae was quickly taking the torch as one of the worst starting pitchers in Altoona franchise history. A sinker ball thrower, he was only getting a ground ball rate of 44%, and batters were hitting line drives at a 25% clip, which is extremely high.
Then came a start in mid-July against the Harrisburg Senators where Altoona Pitching Coach Justin Meccage simply said that McRae “was tired of getting his butt kicked.”
He went eight innings and allowed only one run against him, marking the longest start of any Curve starter this season. He switched back to a heavy two-seam fastball approach, and the results were immediate, inducing weak contact often resulting in a 62% ground ball rate.
When talking to the coaches and McRae himself, there is little doubt that start against Harrisburg was the turning point of his season – essentially stopping the bleeding. Rather than just throwing a Band-Aid on the proverbial wound, they made the necessary changes to turn the corner for the rest of the season.
From that start through the rest of the season, he wasn’t necessarily always perfect, but McRae turned in probably the best and most consistent starting pitching option that the Curve deployed. Over those last ten games, he had a 2.47 ERA and .702 OPS-against. His ground ball rate rose to 54% and his line drive rate dropped to only 15%.
Not only was he named our Altoona Pitcher of the Month for August, his turnaround has earned him the right to take the mound on Wednesday night in Curve, PA.
“It’s definitely pretty exciting,” McRae said about his start. “Obviously, it’s a playoff game, but my mentality can’t change to add additional pressure on myself. I feel like we kind of did that last series, because we knew we were close to clinching, and we put a little too much pressure on ourselves. I can’t really change my mentality. I just need to keep pitching the way I have been.”
In that last series on the road in Richmond, McRae did not pitch, as he threw the home finale last Thursday in Altoona. Then, he took care of business by throwing six scoreless innings. That start has really been the epitome of what McRae has been able to do in his last few outings.
There were three keys to his turnaround that have been reiterated to me over the past month when speaking with the coaches and McRae himself: rediscovery and use of his two-seamer, tempo, and a better pitcher’s mentality.
First with his two-seamer, those ground ball numbers really can speak for themselves. McRae said that when he first came to Double-A, he really just relied on what the catcher would call and just got a little “yes happy”, meaning he would just throwing whatever pitch was signed to him. It took some time to make adjustments, which included a higher ratio of two-seamers to four-seamers.
“I wasn’t throwing to my strengths,” McRae said. “When I had realized what I was doing in Bradenton by getting a ton of ground balls, I knew that I could do it here.”
“I went back to what brought me success in Bradenton, which was throwing my two-seamer and attacking hitters.”
Attacking hitters leads to the next keys – a quicker tempo and the mentality that he was still able to get batters out at a high clip and succeed at the Double-A level like he was in Bradenton.
“We sped up his delivery a little bit to help him time things up better, and I believe it helps his mentality,” Meccage said.
McRae said that they worked on making everything a little quicker, including between pitches and his delivery.
“We made an adjustment with my tempo to speed things up a little,” he said. “That kind of helped my mentality to be more aggressive. Between pitches and getting back on the rubber quickly, it makes the hitter feel uncomfortable by not letting them get into a rhythm. It’s the same thing with my windup and delivery itself – just speeding that up some so there is less room for error in your mechanics. That goes along with messing up the hitter’s timing, too.”
The quicker all-around tempo has been instrumental in a more consistent delivery, which in turn has helped McRae keep the ball down. His misses have not been in the zone; rather, they have been down as to not allow for mistakes to rapidly turn into runs for the opposition. It has also helped his other pitches, most notably his slider, which has looked extremely good of late.
“He has been really good lately,” Curve manager Joey Cora said. “For the last month, he’s throwing strikes, attacking hitters, keeping the ball down in the zone, and mixing all his pitches. He’s really attacking hitters.”
Ultimately, McRae said that his confidence level, which may have initially took a hit after those first few Double-A starts, is high right now, and he feels he is ready for the challenge in the playoffs.
“My first few starts, I didn’t really know what to expect,” McRae said. “I was trying to do a little too much, and I gave the label of Double-A a little too much credit. After getting a few of those starts under my belt, I gained some confidence and realized it’s nothing different than before.
“I knew that I was better than what I was throwing. I’m starting to prove it now, which is good. Especially here in the last few months of the season. It gives me a lot of confidence going into this playoff game.”
The Altoona Curve and Akron Rubberducks take the field for Game One of the Eastern League Western Divisional Series on Wednesday night in Altoona. First pitch is scheduled for 6 PM.
