This game was in line with what we should be expecting from this team!
The most important part of this game was watching our top pitching prospect show off his tools and his ability to deal with not having command of his great changeup. In the 2nd inning, with 2 outs and a man on first, Garcia had a 3-1 count on Fisher (Lefty). Two failed changeups put him in this hole, but he threw a fastball at 90 for a strike. He then threw a 92 MPH for a strike. At this point, Garcia was throwing 90-93 MPH fastballs. I wanted another change even though he wast struggling with it. His fastball can be a little straight and after the last strike was fouled off I felt Fisher was on it and not expecting a change as he had thrown 3 balls on his last changeups. He threw a fastball and it was deposited for a 2 run HR. That was a mistake in 2 ways as I felt it was the wrong pitch, but he also centered the FB. He still showed off his excellent stuff and I was really jazzed to see him get stronger as the game went on. Garcia has an excellent curve and he also throws a slider to righties sometimes (definitely his least thrown pitch but it is pretty good). That is a very repertoire, but you may say 90-93 is pedestrian these days...and you are right. But, he pumped it up to 95 a hand-full of times and was at 94 many times as well. I also liked that Boone stuck with him as he was getting stronger and he allowed him to go 7 innings allowing only 5 hits and had no walks and 6 k's. Remember he did this while struggling with command of his best pitch (the change). I am real excited about this kid.
The game continued with our lineup looking better as Torres is swinging his bat much better to go along with DJ, Frazier and Voit to lengthen our lineup some. Voit only had one hit, but our team walked 7 times and we put up 7 runs.
The 7 innings got us to Britton for an inning and then 1 inning from Chapman and that is our recipe for success.
So the pitching followed the script (usually it would be 6 innings and then a well matched up 7th and then Britton and Chapman, but this worked. The team had some hits with RISP and even Sanchez made a defensive play by blocking a pitch and then throwing out a guy trying to get to 2nd on it and he threw a bullet strike (The only good part of his defense...and it is excellent).
Seeing our rookie pitch well for our 22nd win was very encouraging...now we need Judge, Urshela and Stanton back. This season is moving along as we only have 30% of the year left (18 games).
Tomorrow we have a DH against Baltimore and they are right behind us for the WC so they are big games.
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