WASHINGTON — The Houston Astros dominated the outside wall of Nationals Park’s 200 level Monday afternoon. Six players from the organization, which won the 2017 World Series, made the American League All-Star team, and temporary lighting flanked the sides of their daises to aid the throngs of cameras.
To the left was Charlie Morton, who joined the organization before the 2017 season, and had his most successful year to date, recording the final 12 outs of Game 7 of the World Series. In the middle, Justin Verlander, a longtime Detroit Tigers ace who has shoved since joining the Astros in a waiver trade in August 2017. On the far right sat Gerrit Cole, the most recent addition to their rotation and the latest to improve since joining Houston.
Cole made his second All-Star team after an exceptional first half with the Astros, who acquired him from the Pirates in exchange for Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran, Michael Feliz and outfield prospect Jason Martin. In 20 first-half starts, Cole struck out 177 batters and had a 2.52 ERA in 128⅓ innings, with a major league-leading 5.7 hits allowed per nine.
He pitched well with the Pirates in 2013, his rookie year, and during his first All-Star campaign in 2015 (2.60 ERA, 202 strikeouts in 208 innings) but not to this degree.
“Kind of realizing what my stuff is actually doing and what my strengths are,” Cole said. “Just kind of leaning toward what my strengths are and attacking with that.”
The Astros have gained a reputation for using fewer fastballs, especially sinkers, and more offspeed pitches, as well as for providing their pitches with detailed information about maximizing their strengths. Pitch usage and sequencing are by no means entirely responsible for the Astros’ pitching success — Lance McCullers Jr. and Dallas Keuchel round out a talented rotation — but they have helped the starters compile a 3.02 ERA, 613 innings pitched and 10.4 strikeouts per nine, all of which lead Major League Baseball.
“When I got to Houston, they have all the analytics and they were able to show me how effective my four-seam [fastball] is,” Verlander said. “It’s something I was never taught. I just always did it naturally. It made a lot of sense. If it’s that good, OK, use it more.”
Morton relied on his sinker while with the Pirates, which served him well against righties but left him vulnerable against lefties.
“Looking back, just throwing sinkers to lefties was just an awful idea,” he said. “Just feeding them sinkers was a bad idea. I think I looked at my sinker and I was like, well, this is my best pitch, so I’m going to throw it, and I did. It worked to righties, it didn’t work to lefties. That was my identity.
“And I think [now] we found a way to get lefties out.”
Morton increased his curveball usage to lefties (38.9 percent this year, up from 25 percent in his final year in Pittsburgh) and started throwing his four-seam fastball near the top of the zone. Before 2017, he said, he’d never dreamed of intentionally throwing a high four-seamer. Why’d he start doing it?
“They asked me to.
“I think Strommy [Astros pitching coach Brent Strom] has a reputation of being a guy that supports pitchers using elevated fastballs. He’s big on using all your stuff, using pitches in counts where you might not normally use them, and that gives you a lot of freedom, because there are no ramifications if you walk a guy on a 3-2 curveball. You’re not going to go in the dugout and feel like you did something wrong. You just took a shot with one of your best pitches and missed.”
In 19 starts, Morton has a 2.96 ERA and a career-high 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings. At 34 years old, in his 11th season, he is an All-Star for the first time.
Cole decreased his sinker usage from 13.1 percent last season to 8.5 this year. He is throwing more sliders (21.8 percent, up from 17.4) and curveballs (19.4, up from 12.1). Though the difference in usage is most drastic between 2017 and ’18, the transition began while in Pittsburgh.
“I really thought I put a lot of good work in there and I just, I guess, am maybe taking the next step forward from that,” he said. “But I definitely tried to lay the groundwork for trying to get better and just kind of take a slightly different direction a couple years ago. I just think it’s paying off."
Cole has heard the theory that the Pirates are too reliant on fastballs, specifically two-seamers. The approach helped during 2013-15, when their infield defense and pitching worked in concert.
“As far as I’m concerned, I had really good success while I was there,” Cole said. “I tried to do my job, I always focused on trying to give your team the best chance to win, trying to balance out the bullpen, especially early in my career when we had a lot of veterans on the squad that were dynamic and really pumping out 10-strikeout games, A.J. [Burnett], [Francisco] Liriano, pitching really big games. It was my job to take the ball every day and go deep in to the game. I just tried to take pride in that. As far as their philosophy, it’s their philosophy. I don’t know. It’s kind of none of my business.”
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: July 17, 2018, 1:01 a.m.
