Marco

I've been concerned with Marco Gonzalez for a few weeks now.  After some rocky starts in May, he appears to have turned it around and has posted three consecutive wins.  I don't usually get a chance to follow a pitcher's start pitch by pitch, but Tuesday the fates intervened and I was able to follow Marco pitch-by-pitch through his whole game.

His line in yesterday’s win against the Brewers was 5-8-3-2-0-4 in 94 pitches.  He started strong, got two quick outs, gave up a double and had a run score on an error.  He cruised through the next three, giving up a couple of more doubles.  In the fifth he didn't look quite right.

I watched closely.  He struck out the number nine batter first.  Then yielded a line drive no-doubt-about it home run to Grandal.  He'd hit 17 already this season, do one more was no big deal, but the pitch he hit bothered me.  It came on a three-two count.  He'd had Grandal at 2-2, gave up a foul, then a ball.  He'd had two chances to put him away and didn't.  Then he grooved a cutter and Grandal hit it 425 on a line.

I written on this before... basic pitching common sense: with two strikes on batter, if even or ahead, get 'em out with a slider, full count, better a walk than a grooved home run.

Ok, next batter.  He gets Yelich to ground out on the next pitch.  Nice bounce back.

Then three singles in a row, two of them struck off a pitch behind a 2-2 count.  I dunno.  I have a feeling the problem is more mental than physical.

In his postgame comments Bill Krueger said Marco tired, but he didn't seem fatigued, in fact I thought he got to those two-strike counts easily, hitting spots with some precision (if the targets offered by Narvaez were correct).  There was no question Milwaukee suddenly started to hit him.  Not bing-bing-bing, but in consecutive at bats after working the count.

Maybe Krueger is right, he just runs out of gas.