Did anyone else notice Garcia pitched entirely or almost entirely from the stretch today. What is up with that??

Umm . . . is it because he kept walking people and put the leadoff guy on a few times and always had people on base?

Yep....he found his rhythm from the stretch, and just continued to pitch from the stretch with no one on base. Good for him....as Hawk says, baseball is a game of adjustments.

He started doing it in the third inning, IIRC. Cooper asked him about it from the dugout, & Freddy just basically yelled back he was gonna run with that. He had a lot better control going that way, so it seemed to work.

The Angel TV guys were very impressed by it. They said it was the move of a smart veteran pitcher, who made an ajustment to win.

What does it mean that he was "pitching from the stretch"?

What does it mean that he was "pitching from the stretch"?

 

Pitching from the windup usually has the pitcher facing homeplate straight on, both feet pointing towards homeplate. Pitchers can usually achieve higher velocity with the windup, because they have motions that bring more momentum home.

 

Pitching from the stretch is usually when a runner is on base. A righty would pitch with one foot on the rubber, with his back to 1st base, and toes pointing towards third base. A lefty pitches from the stretch with his back facing third base and toes pointing towards first base(making it tought for runners to get good leads and take off on lefties, because they are facing the pitcher). The stretch is meant for a quicker delivery to home plate, to keep the runner on base, and generally takes a little off the velocity(not always though). Most relievers pitch from the stretch exclusively because they have to be used to runners being on base, and there is really no point in getting comfortable with the windup.

Edited April 29, 200620 yr by kyyle23