Monday night’s zany 11-10 walk-off win over the Angels will be remembered for the offensive heroics of both lineups far more than any pitching performance. However, there was a sequence from Will Warren right before his start got turned on its head that caught my eye. So, I’d like to share what I felt was a good illustration of the growth Warren achieved over the offseason in terms of stuff but also sequencing.
We join Warren in the top of the third with the Yankees already winning, 4-0, courtesy
of a pair of two-run home runs by Aaron Judge and José Caballero. Warren is coasting to this point, only Jo Adell having reached on a hit-by-pitch. Warren’s collected a pair of quick outs in the frame on a Logan O’Hoppe groundout and Adam Frazier strikeout, but has to face the top of the order for the second time.
Warren has already struck out Zach Neto to open the contest — making him look silly on a sweeper down and away (though it did require a nine-pitch battle). In the first encounter he started Neto with a first-pitch sinker in on the hands that Neto swung through, so Warren feels he can achieve a similar result with a first-pitch four-seamer in the same location.
Similar pitch and an even more painful outcome, Neto fouling this pitch off his front foot and collapsing in a heap of pain.
After a result like that, the hitter might become a little gun-shy against future pitches inside. Warren leverages that hesitation with a front-door sweeper trying to steal a called strike two.
This is perfect execution of his pitch, Warren landing this sweeper right on the corner down and in. You can see Neto flinch slightly as it appears this pitch is heading right for his front kneecap and gives up early, only for the sweeper’s foot-and-a-half of horizontal break to bend it into the zone at the last moment. You don’t always want to throw your sweeper for strikes, but this is an encouraging development from Warren to be able to command this pitch to the corner rather than pigeonholing himself into throwing the sweeper only for chase.
In the blink of an eye, Warren is in the driver’s seat, 0-2. He has a wealth of options available to him — fastball above the zone, sweeper off the plate away, or he can even go back inside with a pitch running towards the hitter and away from the barrel. Warren elects the latter option given the success he’s had busting Neto inside so far.
Another excellent pitch from Warren, this sinker running viciously in on Neto’s hands. Neto is barely able to nub it foul with the handle of his bat to stay alive.
After three straight pitches inside, Warren has the situation perfectly set up to get Neto to chase a breaking ball down and away.
This is just a filthy pitch. The sweeper looks like a fastball down Broadway out of the hand, only to take a sharp left hand turn. Neto waves weakly at the pitch, his bat nowhere near making contact to give Warren five strikeouts through the first three innings. You might wonder why Neto is swinging at a pitch that ends up so far off the plate away. Not only is the command of this individual pitch just as Warren intended, it comes out of almost exactly the same tunnel as the sinker that immediately preceded it, a pitch that Neto also swung at. It’s truly the perfect two-pitch sequence given all the other pitches Warren had thrown Neto to this point.
Here’s the full sequence:
For as smoothly as Warren’s outing was going up until this point, it was abruptly derailed an inning later. The leadoff error by José Caballero certainly didn’t help, but you can’t let four of the next six hitters to reach the minute you encounter the first inconvenience of your start. That being said, I think we can still acknowledge the excellence of Warren’s first three innings this game. Warren recorded strikeouts on four different pitches — four-seamer, sinker, sweeper, and changeup — which to me is an encouraging sign given I feel he can become a little over-reliant on his four-seamer and sweeper in two-strike counts. I liked that he varied his approach with the sweeper, throwing it for called strikes and chase, and I though he tunneled pitches well on a handful of occasions. Obviously, the biggest adjustment is to not let a single moment derail his entire start, maturation in that department one of the keys in taking him from an MLB starter with question marks to a legitimate middle-of-the-rotation arm.
