I haven’t had a chance to look at James McDonald’s ugly start in Cincy very closely (his Electric Meter is going to run tomorrow), but I know he was having some sucess with the changeup early and from what I could tell, it was his fastball getting him into trouble. If it was a velocity thing or a break thing (his fastball looked pretty much the same as last year when I looked last week), that’s one thing, but I’m guessing the problem is still that he’s just not mixing his changeup in quite enough. Hopefully he’ll keep feeling a little more comfortable with it and these problems will smooth out.
The suddenly silent Pirate offense draws Chris Volstad tonight as they try to avoid being shut out over the entire series. First pitch tonight is 7:10. A win brings the Pirates to 4-3 on their second road trip of 2011. Also, for anyone interested, I should be on Extra Innings with David Todd after the game discussing Pedro Alvarez, Charlie Morton, and PitchFX. We just taped the interview and unless something crazy happens with the game, David told me that it will run tonight.
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