阿香本人一直在思考自己今年表現不佳的原因，而最近他暫時得到一個結論：會不會是
因為他今年對付打者改投了較多第二球路，卻沒有使用他最主要的 sinker 來解決打者？
事實上阿香今年目前為止伸卡球的使用比例確實減少了一些，從去年的 73.4% 略降為
68.8%，滑球則一直都維持在20%左右，而變速球的使用增加了許多 (6.9%→11.7%)。
昨天阿香第10局被派上來守成，負責解決 Colby Rasmus、普神和假日。他一共投了16
球，其中14球是伸卡，2球是變速，而且那2顆變速球都是壞球，也就是說香最終成功的
用伸卡球取得了出局數。他讓 Rasmus 打出滾地球出局，讓普神擊成右外野的飛球，對
假日他決定投得小心點，結果送出了保送。儘管後面的白肥生涯9次對決阿香擊出過1支
全壘打，還得到3次保送，對戰成績其實並不差，不過香還是覺得對白肥他會投得比較
得心應手。當球數來到2-2，最後他塞了一顆偏好球帶外側一些的 sinker，主審比出了
手勢，這是個三振。香成功守住4-4平手的局面，最後國民由 Espy 擊出致勝的3分HR
得到這場比賽的勝利。
Anyway，光是一場比賽的結果證明不了什麼，但至少這是個好的開始。讓我們繼續觀察
香是否真的能夠徹底觸底反彈，回到去年的那個身為全聯盟最佳RP之一的那個他。
*******
原文：http://tinyurl.com/3w3p96g
As Sean Burnett's shaky season worsened, he often said he could not figure
out why he could not recapture his form from last season, when he became one
of baseball's best relievers. Over the past week, while his struggles kept
him confined to the bullpen, he diagnosed one possible reason: He was letting
hitters feast on his secondary pitches, and not forcing them to hit his
sinker.
「I wasn't getting beat with my best pitch the last month and a half,」
Burnett said. 「If I was going to get beat, I was going to start getting
beat with my sinker. It's something I've been thinking about the last week or
so.」
Last year, according to date compiled by FanGraphs.com, Burnett threw his
sinker 73.4 percent of the time. This year, that dropped to 68.8 percent.
Burnett's usage of his slider has remained constant at almost 20 percent, but
he had been throwing far more changeups – he threw them 6.9 percent of the
time last year and 11.7 percent of the time this season.
Last night, Burnett decided that would change. Of his 16 pitches, Burnett
threw 14 sinkers, just two changeups. Both of those changeups were balls,
intended only as a pitch a batter – he threw one to Holliday, one to Berkman
– might chase out of the zone. To beat him, the Cardinals would have to hit
his sinker. And they didn't.
Burnett entered a tie game last night in the 10th inning with Colby Rasmus,
Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday due up. He had not pitched in a week, when he
faced one batter in San Diego and walked him. That was a day after he
surrendered two runs late in a tie game against the Giants, which shot his
ERA to 5.96. He still wanted the chance to pitch last night.
「I just stopped thinking,」 Burnett said. 「Things have been going so bad, I
figured, 『Just go out there and throw it, see what happens.』 」
Burnett threw Rasmus two sinkers and induced an easy groundout to second. Up
came Pujols. Manager Jim Riggleman could have had Burnett intentionally walk
him. Or, with right-handed Matt Holliday coming, Riggleman could have
summoned Todd Coffey. Instead, he stuck with Burnett.
「I feel I'm capable of pitching in that situation,」 Burnett said. 「I know
I haven't thrown the ball very well. I don't deserve that type of situation.
It was a big confidence boost to get left in there and see if I could get
through it.」
He threw Pujols three sinkers, and the third, Pujols popped to right. Two
outs. Holliday came up, and Burnett decided he would be careful. Lance
Berkman was on deck, and Burnett decided he didn't want Holliday to beat him
– he had faced Berkman nine times, and even though Berkman had hit a homer
and walked three times in those meetings, Burnett felt comfortable facing him.
Even after Burnett got ahead of Holliday, 1-2, he wanted to be careful, and
he threw three straight balls, two of them very close. Up came Berkman, with
the go-ahead run on first. With the count 2-2, Burnett fired a sinker over
the outside corner, maybe just off the corner. The home plate ump pumped his
arms, strike three.
「There was a couple pitches that could have went either way that I didn't
get,」 Burnett said. 「All the stuff that's gone on this year, I deserved a
pitch maybe a little off.」
Burnett had kept the game tied, and minutes later Danny Espinosa would crush
his walk-off homer, end the game and give Burnett a win. A week ago, Burnett
could not figure out what had gone wrong. Now, maybe, Burnett can use last
night as a springboard and things will start going right.
「It's definitely a confidence boost to go through that 2-3-4-5 part of the
order,」 Burnett said. 「Hopefully, I can get on a roll and get some
confidence going. I've had good outings this year. I need to put a string of
them together. But it's a good start.」
--
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※ 編輯: s9527206 來自: 118.160.180.117 (06/18 06:58)