PITTSBURGH — For at least one night, Tony Watson is back. The Pirates’ closer pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to secure a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals Wednesday night, bouncing back from a brutally blow save the night before.
Watson was eager to get back on the mound to correct his deficiencies, and manager Clint Hurdle gave him the green-light to protect a one-run lead in a game the Pirates absolutely needed to win to preserve hope of making the playoffs.
“He was going to pitch tonight,” Hurdle said. “If he had an opportunity to close, I had my mind made up as soon as he told me he was good to go.”
“I’ve been in this situation before where you give up some and then you sit around for a couple days,” Watson said. “It’s good to get back out there. I remember, my first year, in Toronto, I gave up two home runs and I got back out there the next day and it really helped settle things down. It’s good to get back out there. It’s good to get the win, most importantly, and end this losing streak.”
I wrote last night about how Watson had abandoned his four-seam fastball and was grooving his two-seamer.
http://18.206.184.11/2016/09/tony-watsons-struggles-lead-to-pirates-losing-9-7-to-cardinals.html
Well, the four-seamer was back Wednesday, and I was able to talk to Watson and catcher Chris Stewart about what’s been going on with his fastball command.
First, Stewart contributed an explanation for Watson’s perfectly grooved two-seamer to Carpenter Wednesday night.
“I think part of his game is mixing up his timing to the plate,” Stewart said. “He was good up until that 0-2 to pitch to Carpenter. I think he tried to slide-step and throw [Carpenter’s] timing off. Unfortunately, it threw Tony’s timing off more than it threw Carpenter’s timing off. He just missed out over the plate with a ball that we were trying to go down and away with. It happens. It’s the end of the year. Guys are tired. He’s been out there quite a bit this year. He’s not going to be on top of his game every single pitch unfortunately. Sometimes, you get away with them. [Tuesday] night, we didn’t.”
Then, I asked about the decrease in the number of four-seamers. It seems that the command of that pitch within in the zone is something that Watson’s been struggling with all season. He also reiterated the tired factor — which certainly could be an issue given Watson’s usage the last three seasons.
“He’s still throwing four-seamers,” Stewart said. “Sometimes, your body gets tired. You don’t put your arm in the position that it seems to [be in]. The four-seam runs a little bit. I think that’s what was happening last night. We were trying to go away with balls and they were running back over the plate.”
Watson essentially confirmed that, saying that he uses his two fastballs to work opposite corners of the plate, but when his delivery isn’t totally right, the four-seamer can be trouble.
“My M.O. is to go hard in, especially to righties — extension-side fastballs,” he said. “That’s what tells me my delivery is on. Sometimes, we lose it and I go to the sinker and try to get guys guessing.”
That back-and-forth guesswork is part of it, as well. Since Watson is essentially using his two different fastballs to pitch to two different locations, he can’t just have one working, or he gets predictable location-wise.
“It’s in the book now. Guys know what I’m doing,” he said. “A lot of fastballs, especially fastballs in. If you throw a sinker down and away, you get a quick ground ball, it’s always beneficial. Lately, just working on the sinker down and away. But that’s my go-to — four-seamer in — so I’m not going to go away from it.”
Finally, Stewart pretty emphatically put the kibosh on Watson’s struggles being related to the move to closer, referencing the fastball command issues he’s had all season.
“Mentality wise, he’s coming in the same way,” Stewart said. “I know this year, it’s a little bit different. He hasn’t been quite as consistent with his four-seamer. He’s been working on it tremendously. I’ve caught him quite a few times [over the course of the season] and the balls just seem to run back over the plate for some reason. It’s something he’s been working on. He was really good for the most part of that inning [Tuesday] night, and then one bad pitch and it kind of snowballed from there.”
