And finally got his first Major League win.
Red Sox starter Richard Fitts entered his start on Monday searching for his first major league win. It almost seemed like a curse; he had outings shortened by injuries and rain delays. He even threw five shutout innings against the White Sox, which is as close to a guaranteed win as you can get.
He took the ball on Monday against the Rockies and finally completed his quest. The Rockies are a Major League Baseball team. They’re not a good one, in fact, they’re maybe the worst one ever assembled, but the fact that they’re in contention for that award means they’re a Major League team.
Fitts, regardless of the competition, was excellent. He also attacked in a different manner than he usually does. Against lefties he went with a breaking ball-heavy approach. He usually uses his fastball as his primary pitch against lefties and uses his breaking balls later in counts. His approach didn’t necessarily need tweaking; lefties have just an OPS of .546 against him in his career. His strikeout rate against them is low at 14%, and his breakers haven’t put lefties away effectively. The Rockies don’t hit anything, but they especially struggle against breaking balls. That may have been the impetus for the approach on Monday.
The slider was effective, going for 70% strikes. It put Fitts in good counts often and allowed him to show his fastball less frequently. He earned two strikeouts against lefties with the fastball and two with the slider. This approach could be useful going forward. He’s tried to use his curveball as his “out pitch” against lefties, but hasn’t missed bats with it at a high enough rate.
Against righties, his approach was the same as usual. He spotted his four-seamer up in the zone well and kept his slider on the glove side. He tried to mix in more sinkers, though they floated up in the zone a little too often, despite being on the arm side. He allowed four hits against righties, all of which came on pitches up in the zone.
Let’s take a look at it in action. Here’s Ryan McMahon in the fourth inning.
First pitch, a slider that McMahon is way out in front of. Reading the swing tells you that he was expecting a fastball, so Fitts may be better off staying soft for the rest of the at-bat.
Fitts follows it up with a curveball below the zone to even the count.
Here’s another slider, this time on the outside edge. Not exactly what he wanted, but a good frame job by Narvaez steals a strike. With two strikes, Fitts can expand the zone however he sees fit.
Fitts decides to elevate a fastball and gets strike three. This is exactly what a two-strike fastball should be. 97 mph, top of the zone where it can’t be punished. When Fitts executes like this with two strikes, the sky is the limit.
The issue for Fitts is that he doesn’t always put hitters away. In this game alone, he had two eight-pitch at-bats and one eleven-pitch at-bat. The hitters deserve some credit for fouling off two-strike pitches, but Fitts needs to find a way to convert strikes into outs at a higher rate. Against lefties, that could be a splitter or changeup. Against righties, his sweeper has been effective, but he stayed away from it on Monday.