The right-handed reliever has a new weapon against lefties, who were crushing him in April and May. His transition to using sliders rather than changeups defies conventional wisdom.
LOS ANGELES ― The turning point of Yency Almonte’s season might prove to be a game he’d rather forget.
To a left-handed batter, the pitch is usually less of a mystery. Our eyes have less difficulty following an object coming closer to us than an object moving farther away. Depending on the trajectory of the slider, the pitch might even play naturally into the path of a left-handed batter’s swing. For a moment, the sequence looked like another setback for a pitcher who burst out of Triple-A to becomeWith hindsight, the check-swing slider looks like more of a turning point than the meatball that followed. Almonte has faced nine left-handed hitters since facing Larnach. They’re 1-for-8 with a single and a walk. It’s a small sample size.
Then in April, Almonte allowed three hits to left-handers with his changeup; in May he allowed three more before the phaseout began.“I want Yency to dismiss April,” he said, referring to a month that left Almonte with an 8.49 ERA. “With May, I think he’s doing a much better job of managing left-handed hitters.”
“It’s just, I guess, a different shape ― trying to get a different shape to a lefty versus a righty,” he said. “To lefties I want a more vertical shape, with the ball breaking down, as opposed to a righty, I want more sweep across the plate so they can see strike as long as possible.”
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