Lotte’s foreign pitcher, Dan Streeley, 35, was a man in crisis. Lotte manager Larry Sutton shrugged off Straylor’s early struggles, calling him a “typical slow starter.” But the struggles continued through April and into May.
Straylor had a 4.62 ERA in his first nine games of the season. This was due to a very poor April. In five April games, he had a 5.82 ERA and didn’t have a single quality start (6+ innings or less). His command was clearly off, and he was walking too many batters. “I wasn’t throwing a lot of strikes,” Stratton said of his problems in a televised interview after the game.
That changed on the 26th. Staley pitched six innings of three-hit ball with two walks and eight strikeouts. His velocity was up from his previous outings, and his aggressive pitching patterns effectively shut down the Kiwoom bats, leading to a 2-0 victory and his second win of the season.
After admitting that she hadn’t been throwing strikes, Streeley said after the game, “It’s simple. “It’s simple. I threw strikes.” So what was the key to throwing so many strikes? Straylor pointed to his catcher, Kangnam Yoo, as a driving force. 스포츠토토
She spoke with him before the game to refine her game plan. “Why don’t you try using your curveball more instead of your slider, depending on the batter?” he asked, and she responded that she would follow his lead.
In fact, the curveball has become his fourth pitch. This season, he has thrown his four-seam fastball (40.8%), slider (29.5%), changeup (19.3%), and curveball (9.4%). He does throw pitches, but they’re often for show. However, Yoo’s thorough power analysis helped him identify hitters who would be more effective with a curveball, and Straylor followed Yoo’s lead and performed well with a different pattern on this day.