D

Don’t Quit On This Guy — Or His Batterymate

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my position that the Rangers should simply leave Matt Harrison alone and keep sending him out there every five days. Last night, he gave a little glimpse of why I believe the Rangers need to continue to hang in there with him. I think Harrison learned something last night that he would not have learned in Oklahoma City: don’t give in or give up on the fastball if you get in trouble.

I saw Harrison pitch a few times in Frisco last year and one of the things I noticed was that there were times when he had trouble trusting his fastball and would start throwing backwards (and for those of you unfamiliar with pitching parlance, that means that he would try to get ahead with offpseed stuff instead of his fastball). He would not come inside with his fastball either.

Last night, however, after he got into trouble, Harrison did not try to hide his fastball amidst an array of junk. He hung in there with it and rode out the storm. It helps enormously, of course, that his velocity sat in the 90-96 mph range instead of the 88-90 mph range he had against Kansas City on the 17th. It also helps, I believe, that he had Taylor Teagarden behind the plate.

Here were Harrison’s first pitches to each batter he faced last night:

1st Inning:
Brian Roberts: 92 mph fastball (called strike)
Adam Jones: 95 mph fastball (called strike)
Nick Markakis: 93 mph fastball (strike – single to LF)
Aubrey Huff: 87 mph cutter (ball)
Ty Wigginton: 91 mph fastball (called strike)

2nd Inning:
Luke Scott: 89 mph fastball (ball)
— Walk on five pitches, four of which were outside.
L. Montanez: 90 mph fastball (called strike)
— Two-pitch at-bat, both inside, and Montanez doubled to LF.
Greg Zaun: 94 mph fastball (ball)
Robert Andino: 83 mph changeup (swinging strike)
— Three of the four pitches in this sequence were on the inside corner and the at-bat ended with an RBI single on a slider in.
Brian Roberts: 92 mph fastball (called strike)
— This 9-pitch at-bat ended with a 2-run single to make the score 4-0. He started Roberts off with a 92 mph fastball inside and came back inside four more times during the at-bat. He was trying to come inside on the ninth pitch, but it ran back over the middle of the plate and Roberts lined it to center, causing more damage than any other at-bat of the night.
Adam Jones: 82 changeup (swinging strike)
— This at-bat ended with Jones lining an inside fastball to RF (Murphy nailed Roberts at 2B)
Nick Markakis: 76 mph curve (called strike)
— This at-bat ended with Markakis grounding out to 2B on a 90 mph inside FB.

3rd Inning:
Aubrey Huff: 90 mph fastball (called strike)
Ty Wigginton: 90 mph fastball (called strike)
— Three-pitch at-bat ended with Wigginton popping out to 2B on a 92 mph inside FB.
Luke Scott: 93 mph fastball (called strike)
— Six-pitch at-bat, five of which were outside the zone.

4th Inning:
L. Montanez: 90 mph fastball (called strike)
— Set up a curveball with 92 mph fastball inside and 86 mph cutter/slider inside.
Greg Zaun: 91 mph fastball (strike – g/o to SS)
R. Andino: 93 mph fastball (called strike)
— Lined out on to CF on a 93 mph fastball on 4th pitch of the sequence.

5th Inning:
Brian Roberts: 77 mph curve (ball)
— Wasn’t ready to throw a FB at Roberts. Second pitch was an 81 mph change that was popped to 2B.
Adam Jones: 92 mph fastball (called strike)
— The 92 mph fastball for strike one was in on the hands and was followed by two changeups away, the seond of which was grounded to SS.
Nick Markakis: 93 mph fastball (ball)
— Five pitches, all away. Got him swinging at a 92 mph fastball.

6th Inning:
Aubrey Huff: 91 mph fastball (ball)
Ty Wigginton: 92 mph fastball (strike – f/o to RF)
— It was a fastball in on the hands.
Adam Scott: 94 mph fastball (ball)
— The last three pitches of this five-pitch at-bat were a 92 mph fastball inside for a strike, 81 change down out out of the zone and a 96 mph fastball that Scott foul tipped to Teagarden.

7th Inning:
L. Montanez: 90 mph fastball (ball)
— Six-pitch at bat — all fastballs — that ended with Montanez grounding out on a 92 mph fastball to 2B. The preceding pitch was a 95 mph fastball at his chin.
Greg Zaun: 93 mph fastball (ball)
— Six pitches, all fastballs once again. After Harrison fell behind 3-0, he came with a fastball in for strike one, a fastball away for strike two and then came back inside with a 90 mph fastball that Zaunie rolled to short.
Robert Andino: 94 mph fastball (ball)
— Six pitches, five fastballs, four were inside including a 95 mph fastball at Andino’s head to take the count full. The at-bat ended with Andino singling to CF on an 82 mph changeup in the middle of the plate. Didn’t work out, but I did like that he tried to set up the changeup away with the 95 cheese at the kid’s head.
Brian Roberts: 90 mph fastball (ball)
— Still staying away from Roberts, but gave him three fastballs, the last of which ended up in David Murphy’s glove to end Harrison’s night.

Harrison faced 28 hitters and started off 23 of them with fastballs. In his last start against Kansas City, Harrison faced 24 hitters and started off only 15 of them with fastballs.

After losing the 9-pitch battle against Roberts in the second and falling behind 4-0, Harrison started off the next two hitters with offspeed stuff, but he got back to beginning at bats by trying to get ahead with his fastball for most of the remainder of the night. He did not abandon the idea of working inside with the fastball either.

I’m not a big believer in Taylor Teagarden’s bat. He’s got a little pop, but I’m pretty much in the camp that believes he’s probably always going to have contact problems because of the shape of his swing. Perhaps Rudy will crack his code, but even if he doesn’t, Teagarden is still an extremely valuable guy in this organization. I’ve heard enough from pitchers he’s worked with to realize how much they trust him and how much confidence he gives them. I don’t hesitate to suggest that he played a large part in seeing Harrison through the darkness of the second inning and bringing back out of the other side to go on and throw with courage the rest of the way.

Chris Davis is going to slump here and there. His track record in the minors suggests that, eventually, he’ll stop slumping. Elvis is going to make an error here or there. Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s defense will be uneven, but it’s improving and will continue to do so.

Matt Harrison is just another kid in this thing who is going to have to learn some things the hard way. He’s not the sort of pitcher who has the stuff to just step right in and blow people away (see, e.g., Holland, Derek). But the more he figures out a way to fight through things like yesterday’s second inning and trust himself against major league hitters, the better he’s going to be.