What You Need to Know: July 3, 2015

The Thursday Takeaway
Over the last few years the Tommy John epidemic has claimed a number of your favorite starting pitchers, with Adam Wainwright, Stephen Strasburg, Matt Harvey, Jordan Zimmermann, and Yu Darvish among the top arms who have fallen victim to the injury. Among the most disheartening blows to baseball fans was news last May that Jose Fernandez would require Tommy John surgery to repair his torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Just 21 years old at the time of the injury, Fernandez had arguably been the best pitcher not named Kershaw since making his major-league debut. He posted a 2.40 DRA (tied with Kershaw for second among qualified starters) during his 2013 Rookie of the Year campaign and had even more impressive peripherals in eight starts the next season before going under the knife.

Fernandez’s enticing repertoire of pitches coupled with his youth, his humble personality, and the story of his escape from Cuba made the news of his surgery all the more difficult to digest for the Marlins and baseball fans alike. But on Thursday, all was well again for those who had been without the right-hander’s mid-to-upper-90s fastball, devastating breaking ball, and plus changeup for over a calendar year.

Fernandez fired in his first pitch of the game at 94 mph for a strike against Gregor Blanco, much to the delight of the energetic Miami crowd. Blanco laced a single up the middle two pitches later and found himself in scoring position after a Joe Panik double. Faced with some early trouble, Fernandez resorted to the hellacious breaking ball that they call “The Defector.” Matt Duffy watched Fernandez’s first slider go by for strike one at the knees, then flailed at another that dove out of the zone. With the Giants’ third baseman on the ropes, Fernandez reached back for a little extra and painted the outside corner with 99 mph for his first of six strikeouts on the day.

A Buster Posey sacrifice fly gave the visitors the early lead, with another run coming around to score when Brandon Belt blooped an inside fastball just beyond the reach of both Adeiny Hechavarria and Miguel Rojas.

Opposite Fernandez was another starting pitcher who had been on the shelf for an extended period of time. Matt Cain was shut down last July when his right elbow flared up; he opted for season-ending surgery a month later to remove bone chips. After making a handful of starts during spring training, Cain was shut down again with a right flexor tendon strain, which ended up costing him the first three months of the season.

The veteran was spotted a two-run cushion before taking the mound for the first time in nearly a year and struggled to find the strike zone out of the gate, walking a pair in the first inning. But both Cain and Fernandez settled in after their rocky starts, with each hurler’s velocity and movement on their respective pitches resembling that of their pre-injury selves. Miami managed to push across a run against Cain in the third and Fernandez served up a solo jack to Gregor Blanco in the top of the fifth, marking the first time in his career that he had given up at least three earned runs in a home start.

But the home half of the fifth is when things unraveled for Cain.

Fernandez led off the inning against his counterpart and watched the first two pitches go by—one for a strike and one for a ball. The next pitch was a fastball down Broadway and Fernandez gave it a ride.

The second home run of Fernandez’s young career landed 404 feet away and left his bat at 104 mph, which tied the second-highest exit velocity on a pitcher home run this season. After striking out Dee Gordon, Cain walked Christian Yelich and gave up a single to Hechavarria. That brought up Justin Bour, who had gone deep in each of the previous two games. With the Marlins eyeing a series sweep of the defending champs, Bour continued his hot hitting with a moonshot into the second deck.

Cain was given the hook after five innings, scattering seven hits and walking four compared to just a pair of strikeouts. Buster Posey did his best to spoil Fernandez’s return, blasting a solo home run off Carter Capps in the eighth inning to pull the Giants to within one run. However, A.J. Ramos set the Giants down in order in the ninth to pick up his 12th save of the season and finish off the 5–4 win for the Fish.

As for Fernandez, he lasted six innings, throwing 68 of his 89 pitches for strikes on his way to six punchouts and no walks allowed. He maintained his velocity throughout the outing and garnered seven whiffs with his devastating breaking ball. There were a couple of bumps along the way for Fernandez, but the dominating stuff that vaulted him to the top tier of starting pitchers in the game prior to the injury was still there. The kid is back and the game of baseball is better for it.

Quick Hits from Thursday
Fernandez wasn’t the only talented Sunshine State hurler making his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery on Thursday. The Rays lost Matt Moore to a torn UCL after just two starts last year, and the young left-hander spent nearly 15 months rehabbing after undergoing surgery. The once highly touted prospect didn’t have quite the triumphant return that Fernandez did, as Moore’s fastball velocity on Thursday was about two full mph slower than it was in 2013 and he failed to make it out of the fifth inning against the Indians.

The 26-year-old gave up four runs on six hits (all singles) and two walks before Kevin Cash gave him the hook at 81 pitches. He tallied four strikeouts on the day. Not every pitcher bounces back to his pre-surgery self immediately, so while the decreased velocity is certainly noteworthy, it’s too early to make much of it. However, an interesting takeaway from Moore’s return was the use of his cutter, which he integrated into his repertoire before getting hurt in 2014, but at just 5 percent of the time over his two starts.

The MLBAM Gameday algorithm labeled all of Moore’s fastballs as either four-seamers or two-seamers, but as Ian Malinowski of DRaysBay pointed out, a number of Moore’s pitches were clearly a different variation of the heater.

According to Malinowski’s classifications, Moore threw 21 cutters that averaged 89.4 mph (compared to his four- and two-seamers, which averaged about 91.6 mph). Six of Moore’s 10 swings and misses during the outing came on the cutter, including one that Michael Brantley swung over for Moore’s first strikeout of the afternoon. When compared to a 91 mph four-seam fastball that Moore threw earlier in the count to a similar spot on the outer part of the plate, it’s clear how Moore’s cutter can effectively play off his other fastball variations.

While Moore was busy experimenting with his new pitch, Corey Kluber showed why he has one of the more dominating assortments of secondary offerings in the game. Kluber racked up 14 strikeouts for the fourth time in the last two seasons en route to an eight-inning outing on Thursday, tying his season high with 24 swings and misses. Kluber’s other 24-whiff start was his 18-strikeout masterpiece against the Cardinals back in May.

When facing Kluber, batters are forced to account for both a hard, low-90s cutter and a devastating slider that usually sweeps across the zone in the low to mid-80s. However, Kluber took his use of the two breaking pitches to a new level on Thursday. Of Kluber’s 115 pitches, 70 of them were either his cutter or slider (61 percent), which was the highest percentage of breaking pitches that Kluber has ever thrown in a single start. In case you’re wondering, 19 of the 24 swings and misses that Kluber generated were on the two breaking pitches.

Despite all of the bats that Kluber missed, the Rays were still able to push across four runs (three earned) against the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. With Steve Geltz, Jake McGee, Brad Boxberger, and Kevin Jepsen combining to blank the Indians after Moore departed, that meant free baseball in Tampa Bay. But on the first pitch of the 10th inning, Mike Aviles put the visitors back on top.

Cody Allen struck out the side to close out the game and finish off the four-game sweep for the Tribe.

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The theme of Tommy John survivors continued with the major-league debut of Atlanta’s Manny Banuelos. The then-Yankees prospect went under the knife back in 2012 and his stuff hasn’t been the same since. Nevertheless, the 5-foot-10 southpaw breezed through his five innings against the Nationals, striking out seven, with no walks and two hits allowed.

Banuelos retired the first two batters he faced in the sixth inning before plunking Denard Span and Danny Espinosa. After Espinosa trotted down to first base, pitching coach Roger McDowell came out to check on the youngster, who was walking around gingerly after the pitch. Banuelos was unable to continue, but it was announced after the game that he had left due to cramping and dehydration.

Luckily the injury wasn’t serious, but it was a shame that Banuelos was forced to depart after just 75 pitches. His changeup was working especially well, as he picked up seven of his 10 whiffs with the offering, including this 3–2 pitch to strike out Bryce Harper in the first inning.

Despite having to depart early, Banuelos was in line to pick up the “W” opposite Max Scherzer. The Nationals’ ace has been absolutely dominant over his past few starts and faced just one above the minimum through his first four innings against the Braves. But Atlanta pushed across a run in the fifth when Andrelton Simmons plated Juan Uribe—who had led off the inning with a double—with a one-out single.

Washington would even the score in the seventh, with Wilson Ramos driving home Harper from second with an RBI single. The key play in the inning had been Harper’s leadoff double, which popped out of the glove of a diving Cameron Maybin.

It wasn’t the easiest play in the world and the reason Maybin was in such good position to make the catch in the first place was his speed coupled with a pretty efficient route to the ball. Nevertheless, the ball hit him square in the mitt and he was probably kicking himself for not reeling it in.

However, Maybin got the chance to redeem himself in the ninth inning against Scherzer. Pedro Ciriaco hustled out a softly hit ball to the shortstop for an infield single and advanced to second base when Jace Peterson sacrificed him over. That left it up to Maybin, who hit a chopper over the head of Yunel Escobar to give the Braves the walk-off win and hand Scherzer the tough-luck loss.

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On Wednesday, Rick Porcello‘s disappointing season hit a new low. The Red Sox’s starter served up five runs in the first inning and lasted just one more frame after that, finishing with seven runs allowed against the Blue Jays on three home runs to balloon his ERA to 6.08.

Toronto starter Matt Boyd one-upped Porcello’s outing in Thursday’s series finale, and not in a good way. The Red Sox started things off with a trio of base knocks by Mookie Betts, Brock Holt, and Xander Bogaerts. With runners at first and second, David Ortiz stepped to the plate and thought about trying a bunt to beat the shift, but pulled back when Boyd’s first pitch sailed out of the strike zone.

Two pitches later, Boyd’s pitch sailed out of the park.

Hanely Ramirez followed Ortiz with a long ball of his own, giving the Red Sox a 5–0 lead with an out yet to be recorded.

Boyd went on to allow a single to Pablo Sandoval, uncork a wild pitch, and walk Mike Napoli before John Gibbons finally decided enough was enough. Both Sandoval and Napoli came around to score after Boyd hit the showers, resulting in a final line of seven earned runs on six hits and a walk with no outs recorded. According to the Baseball Reference Play Index, it was just the 18th time since 1914 that a starting pitcher has given up at least seven earned runs without recording an out and the first time since Jeremy Hefner did it against the Phillies in 2012.

In addition to the two inherited runners he allowed to score, Liam Hendriks was charged with a run of his own when Betts tallied his second hit of the inning. Toronto would counter Boston’s eight-run frame with a four-run second inning, but that’s all they were able to muster against Wade Miley. The southpaw went five innings before handing it off to the bullpen, which was able to limit the damage in the eventual 12–6 drubbing.

The Defensive Play(s) of the Day
Kevin Gausman dazzled in a spot start on Thursday against the Rangers, striking out seven over 6 1/3 scoreless innings. He also got some help behind him from David Lough, who sacrificed his body to rob Elvis Andrus of extra bases in the second inning.

The Orioles’ outfielder followed up with a nice sliding catch in the eighth inning to prevent a leadoff hit in a tie game.

But Lough’s efforts weren’t enough for Baltimore to pull out the win, as the Rangers pushed across a pair of runs in the ninth against Chaz Roe to break the scoreless tie and reward Yovani Gallardo for his six innings of scoreless ball. Gallardo’s scoreless innings streak sits at 29 1/3 innings after Thursday’s outing.

What to Watch this Weekend
Runs have been hard to come by for the Mets over the past few weeks. Jake Arrieta carved up the Amazins’ lineup in a 6–1 win on Thursday to finish off a three-game sweep for the Cubs, with Jacob deGrom scoring the lone run of the series for the home team. The Mets have scored just 23 runs over their last 14 games and have been shut out five times during that span. And that’s all with Curtis Granderson hitting five home runs over that period and the four-RBI day by starting pitcher Steven Matz during his debut last Sunday. Things won’t get any easier this weekend, as the Mets head to the West Coast for a weekend matchup against the Dodgers, drawing Clayton Kershaw on Friday (10:00 p.m. EST) and Zack Greinke on Saturday (7:15 p.m. EST). I don’t play daily fantasy baseball but I would imagine that both pitchers are pretty good bets to put up some points.

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Chris Sale‘s recent stretch of dominance continued against the Cardinals his last time out, with the left-hander fanning 12 over eight innings of one-run ball. The start marked Sale’s eighth straight game with at least 10 strikeouts and tied him with Pedro Martinez for the longest such streak since 1914. It also put the finishing touches on a particularly dominant month of June for Sale, who generated 138 swing and misses across six starts. According to Daren Willman of Baseball Savant, the next-most whiffs generated by a pitcher over the course of a month since 2008 is 116, also done this past month by Clayton Kershaw. Sale will look to kick off July in similarly dominant fashion against the Orioles with the chance to extend his aforementioned streak to 11 games (2:10 p.m. EST).