Too many changeups. Way too many changeups. Good start, but that was an issue.
According to Keith Hernandez, both manager Terry Collins and pitching coach Dan Warthen told him to throw more changeups. What he did in his first start was absolutely perfect. He threw 6.6% changeups in his debut, and threw 19.8% last night. He threw his fastball by people to get ahead in the count, then was able to mix his pitches very well. While his changeup is very good, it's more effective when it's used sparingly. If he's going to throw it more, he needs to learn Johan Santana's circle changeup.
I liked his composure when he worked out of two bases loaded jams giving up what should have been only 1 run, but it ended up being 3 thanks to the throwing error by Ruben Tejada in the second inning. He was able to get the ground balls that he needed, and showed that he can really located his pitches well.
His velocity was down, and outside of the first batter, I can't remember him getting back to 97 MPH. I don't know what happened, but his velocity was down on all of his pitches. ,He lost 1.4 MPH on his fastball, 1.2 MPH on his slider, and 0.8 MPH on his changeup. I don't know what that is, and I refuse to believe that it's adrenaline, because his fastball has always been powerful.
It was still a very good start, and that's what you can ask for from an ace even, but those issues need to be worked out.
He went 0-for-2 with the bat! What's his problem!
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