Friggin' Sick: Estrada and Goins Beat Yankees
Marco Estrada has slyly and sneakily become one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League. Watch Estrada bob and weave his pitches, baffling the Yankees hitters, was delightful to watch. Masterful, even.
Estrada threw 8 shutout innings last night. He’s struck out 58 batters vs 42 hits and 26 walks, and has allowed five hits or fewer in seven straight starts.
I include this for some of my Twitter followers, mostly because it's very "Hey....."
Anyway.
Remember when the idea that only Dioner Navarro could catch Estrada was being floated around. It’s sometimes brought up with Martin struggling at the plate- “Dinner is cheaper. Estrada likes Dinner more….” I’ve made fun of it mostly because one could say many things about Russell Martin, but “doesn’t get along with pitchers” is not one of them.
“Everything is coming out of the same angle and it’s anywhere from 89 to 78 and then he’s got the breaking ball. He’s mixing your eye level by going up and down and then he has the velocity difference with the changeup (averaging 78.62 mph), and then he has the curveball and then he has the cutter. If you’re on the fastball, you’re probably going to just miss the cutter. If you’re on the cutter, if he throws a good one, you’re not going to keep it fair. If you’re on the curveball, he’s got to throw a middle-middle curveball for you to hit it or else it’s going to be a tough pitch to hit. And the fastball he locates so well that you can sometimes put the ball on a tee where he’s putting it and it’s going to be hard to hit.
The big thing about him is his command and the way he disguises the velocity. You really cannot pick up the changeup out of his hand. The arm speed is exactly the same as his fastball, and for me as a hitter, that’s the toughest thing, to wait back on a changeup and drive it. So many guys miss fastballs because they’re honouring the changeup. Those 88s that are up, that normally guys would crush, (get swing and miss) because in their mind they don’t want to look like an idiot on a changeup, which they pretty much all have in their career already.”
Talk pitching to me, baby.
The other standout of the evening was Ryan Goins. Watching Ryan Goins success at the plate, followed by the various interactions in the dugout was delightful. As was this quote:
“I told him, ‘You need me in the dugout, bro. Every time I’m in this dugout you go backside bomb. That home run was frigging sick. That’s so tough to do. That was impressive. Hell yeah—that’s such a big hit right there.”
Also fantastic was this,
Obligatory Gibby quote:
“GoGo, you know, he ain’t been playing a whole lot lately. But a big, big night. He seemed good and relaxed tonight—and confident. You know, Ryan has been struggling for a while. But he’s a better hitter than that. He had a few days off, relaxed, and came through for us.”
GoGo, you know.
Music?
This song is transcendent.