Up Your IQ: The Art of Pitching with an Open Base

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The Game

We had a classic pitching duel last week in New York when the Mets took on the Diamondbacks. Rookie, Nolan Mclean (Mets) faced off against Eduardo Rodriguez (Dbacks). Neither disappointed. Mclean cruised through 6 innings before giving up a couple runs in the 7th and the only run Rodriguez gave up was a first inning solo homer to Luis Robert Jr. (read below for the rematch) across his 6 innings.

Despite the quality starts from both pitchers, the Diamondbacks actually blew this open in the 7th inning after chasing Mclean and ended up winning 7-1. There were a couple crucial moments in this game allowing the Diamondbacks to hang around that young pitchers can learn from.

The Pitchers

I think it's important to give a little context on the names above. Nolan Mclean is going to be an ace in this league. He started the gold medal game of the World Baseball Classic for the United States and the stuff is undeniable. It's nasty and it's unique. So much so that mlb.com even did a write up about his sinker, sweeper combo. You can see how his stuff profiles here, but the gist of it is he throws hard, his breaking pitches move a lot, he strikes a lot of guys out, and he doesn't let a ton of guys on for free. He's the Mets number 1 ranked prospect.

Eduardo Rodriguez is no slouch. The left hander is in his 11th Major League season and has thrown over 1300 big league innings to a 4.14 career ERA. The last two years haven't been as good for him since signing a 4 year, $80 million deal with Arizona in which he's posted ERA's just over 5.00, respectively. However, if you've survived the big leagues for over a decade, you know how to pitch. Even with a fastball that tops out at 92 mph (now below big league average) he can still get guys out. This experience played a huge role in how he was able to navigate...