A Breakdown of Tyler Glasnow’s First MLB Start

Tyler Glasnow made his MLB debut on Thursday. Here is a complete breakdown of his first start.

First Inning

Tyler Glasnow began his first MLB game by walking Greg Garcia on seven pitches. Garcia saw fastballs exclusively, ranging between 92-96 MPH. He recorded his first strikeout, getting Aledmys Diaz to chase the curve.

Check out Tyler Glasnow's first K of his career with his famous Curveball pic.twitter.com/LgNXfBxguU

— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) July 7, 2016

He broke out his breaking ball during the Diaz’s at-bat, showing the hitter pitches that were as fast as 95 MPH and as slow as 78 MPH. Matt Holliday saw five pitches in the next at-bat, while Glasnow continued to rely on his fastball and pepper the pitch sequence with a few breaking balls. Holliday and the next batter Stephen Piscotty both hit into ground outs, allowing Glasnow to leave Garcia at third. Glasnow needed 22 pitches to work his way through the first inning.

Second Inning

The second inning of Glasnow’s debut went even better than the first. While he did throw a lot of pitches (19) like he did in the first, he did not allow any base runners. He was able to get Matt Adams to fly out to deep left field after six pitches, mixing his fastball in with his breaking ball. Glasnow followed that up with a strikeout of Yadier Molina, getting him to swing at a blazing 96 MPH fastball to end the at-bat. He ended the inning by getting Randal Grichuk to ground out, once again switching between his heater and his curveball.

Third Inning

Glasnow appeared to start to get comfortable in the third inning. He delivered three fastballs to Kolten Wong (94, 92, 90 MPH) before he flew out to center field. Then he struck out his mound opponent Adam Wainwright looking, ending the at-bat with a big 78 MPH curveball on the corner of the plate. The frame ended with Garcia grounding out to first. Glasnow’s third inning showed a clear pattern in how he sequenced the pitches. All three hitters saw fastballs with the first three pitches, and if they made it past that point he would mix in other pitches in his arsenal.

Fourth Inning

The fourth inning marked Glasnow’s second turn through the order. He made his biggest mistake of the game (to that point) in the fourth when he left an offspeed pitch up in the zone and Diaz hit it to the top of the left field wall, good for a triple. He again started the hitters off with his fastball, offering at least two before he went to a different pitch. This pattern worked to get Holliday to ground out and Piscotty to strike out swinging on an 80 MPH curveball well below the zone.

Unfortunately his fastball control was not as good as the command he had with his breaking ball, as he uncorked a wild pitch during Matt Adams‘ at-bat to allow Diaz to score and tie the game. He came right back with another fastball to get Adams to fly out to left field. Through four innings Glasnow threw 70 pitches and 43 of those went for strikes.

Fifth Inning

Glasnow was able to check off another one of the “firsts” when he slapped a ball to left field in the fifth inning. In the bottom of the inning, he was able to get Molina to pop out to first base after four pitches. In the next at-bat, he left a first pitch curveball up in the zone that Grichuk promptly deposited over the left field wall. Like the last time he gave up a run, he settled down and got Wong to hit into a ground out and then struck Wainwright out on three pitches. The last two outs resulted from fastballs that were between 92-94 MPH.

Sixth Inning

Glasnow seemed to start to run out of gas in the sixth inning. He gave up a double to Garcia who then was moved to third by Diaz’s sacrifice bunt. He then walked Holliday on four consecutive pitches, fastballs between 91-20 MPH and Clint Hurdle decided his afternoon was over. Unfortunately for Glasnow, Arquimedes Caminero gave up a three run home run and the two baserunners were he responsibility.

Conclusions

In general Glasnow had a good debut. Walks have been an issue for Glasnow this season, and he only walked two in five and a third innings on Thursday. While his fastball did reach as high as 96 MPH, he seemed to have a hard time controlling it. On the other hand, his breaking ball was good, but he did get into trouble with it. He made mistakes when he left his curveball up in the strike zone and the Cardinals were able to capitalize on it. If Glasnow can harnass all of his pitches and use them effectively, he’ll be extremely hard to hit.

It remains to be seen how the Pirates will structure their rotation after the All-Star Break, but Tyler Glasnow could very much be in the discussion after Thursday’s start.