With Yovani Gallardo getting rocked in just his second start back from the disabled list, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one worried that his strained oblique was starting to act up again.
I was looking for something — anything — to show that he was still hurting, and that would explain why he surrendered five earned runs on 10 hits in just 2.2 innings.
Was the velocity down?
Nope.
Heading into the game, Yo’s fastball averaged 92.3 MPH. Last night, he averaged 92.23 MPH. His other pitches were also almost spot-on with their season averages: he averages 86.1 with what pitch f/x classifies as a slider, he threw it at 86.96 last night; his curveball averages 79.5, he threw it at 79.67; his changeup averages 84.0, and was at 83.50 last night.
Was he missing his spots more often?
Doesn’t look like he did any more than usual. Take a look at his location plot last night, and compare it to his last start against Pittsburgh.
He just didn’t have it, in his own words. Everything seemed to get hit, and hit were there weren’t any fielders.
It’s possible that this was just a bad luck start, with more balls falling in for hits than usual. It happens, and unfortunately, most of those hits came in a row. It’s also likely, though, that the difference between Tuesday night’s start and his return start against the Pirates is just that the Reds’ lineup is really, really good and the Pirates’ lineup is really, really bad.
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