Freddy Garcia didn’t walk a batter in his second straight start tonight, a
7-3 loss against the Minnesota Twins. It marks only the fifth time in his career where he’s gone consecutive starts without issuing a free pass.
The more interesting fact is that before this year, he’d only done it twice. The only other occasions happened in 2001.
That year, Freddy won a career high in games (18), posted a career-low ERA (3.05) and finished third in Cy Young voting.
Let’s just say none of those things are going to happen this year.
Of course, a 7 mile-per-hour difference on his fastball made Freddy’s spurts of control that year a luxury – now, he needs to grab plate just to survive, considering all the hits he’s giving up.
Since the beginning of May, Freddy has started 20 games and walked one or none in 13 of them. He’s only walked more than two batters on two different occasions. Yet in spite of that stretch of control, his record is 7-8, with a 4.67 ERA.
Torii Hunter showed everybody why Freddy can’t live on control alone when he homered to give the Twins the lead in the sixth. With Hunter’s blast, Freddy has now given up more homers (23) than walks (22) since May 1.
Now the Twins have a couple pitchers who have allowed more homers than walks in single seasons. Tomorrow’s starter,
Brad Radke, has done it twice, and overall he’s been a successful pitcher.
Carlos Silva also did that in 2005, but since he only walked nine guys in 188 innings last year, he’d either have to give up more homers than walks, or he’d have won the Cy Young Award.
The difference between Radke and Garcia is that Radke is used to pitching with slow stuff. He has a big difference – at least 15 miles per hour or so -- between his fastball and his off-speed stuff. He has a slower curveball, and he’s not afraid to throw his changeup two or three times in a row to any hitter.
Freddy’s curve, on the other hand, was clocked at 77 tonight – only 10 below his average fastball. It looked good when he was able to put it in the dirt on the outside corner against right-handed batters, but when he leaves them up, it isn’t slow enough to where he can get away with a hanger due to sheer mistiming by the hitter.
Overall, he gave up 10 hits in six innings tonight, making it 156 in 133 since May. Radke only gave up 214 in 200 innings of work last year. Garcia’s also given up 30 stolen bases in 31 attempts this year; Radke’s allowed 24 stolen bases since 2004.
Numbers like those explain why Radke posted a 4.00 ERA last year with more homers than walks, while Freddy’s fortunate to have an ERA less than one run higher. Freddy’s still operating as a power pitcher with a finesse arm, and unless he knows he’ll get his velocity back with a full offseason, that’s not going to cut it.