TORONTO — One of the more under-appreciated arts of starting pitching is sequencing—the way a pitcher uses his catalogue differently each time through the order.
As a starting pitcher, with the opposition having access to the precise location, velocity and movement of every single pitch you’ve ever thrown in your major-league career—not to mention multi-angle video of all those pitches—you have to work hard to remain unpredictable. If you want to get a good hitter out three times in one day, you can’t follow any patterns. It’s one thing to have a starter’s repertoire, as Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Joe Biagini does. It’s another to know how to use it.
With that in mind, and Saturday’s 7-0 loss to the New York Yankees not offering much else to chew on narratively-speaking, let’s take a closer look at the varied ways Biagini went after the most feared hitter in New York’s lineup: the comic book character come to life otherwise known as Aaron Judge.
Because if you’re going to have a good day against the Yankees, you’re going to have to get Judge out. And while the Blue Jays as a collective weren’t at their best Saturday, Biagini did have himself a very fine day in only his sixth start at the major-league level.
"He was great—he really was," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "He had it all working. He had a good curveball today. Good fastball. He’s just slowly turning into a pretty good-looking starter. What happens down the road this season, I couldn’t tell you yet. But it’s nice to watch."
Biagini began Judge’s first plate appearance cautiously, trying twice to hit the low outside corner with heaters—one a four-seamer, the other a cutter—that were close but ruled balls. His catcher, Luke Maile, pointed out at Biagini after the second, reaffirming that he’d thrown good pitches but that a good hitter had merely laid off of them.
"Luke’s really good," Biagini said. "He’s really in control of the game. Really smart. You don’t really worry about it. I thought that only guys like Russell Martin were like that. But he’s a guy that, you can just tell, it’s a look in his face that, ‘I’m thinking with you and I’ve got you and I’m on it.’ It’s really a luxury to have somebody like that."
In an obvious fastball count, Biagini then brought out his curveball, a 78-m.p.h. rainbow he dropped right on that low outside corner he’d been aiming at, for a called first strike. Encouraged, Biagini and Maile went right back to the same pitch but lower, maybe to try to get Judge to chase it, maybe because Biagini missed his spot. Either way, Judge laid off to get to 3-1.
Another fastball count and another unconventional offering, as Biagini dotted a cutter right at the top of the zone, away from Judge, for his second strike. Now he had options. Instead of trying to get Judge to chase or swing over a breaking ball as you might expect, Biagini dialled up his fastball again, locating it perfectly at Judge’s knees on the outside half of the plate. But the strike call never came and Biagini put his hands on his head as Judge jogged to first.
Not what you want. If you throw three strikes in a plate appearance, you should get a strikeout. But that sequence still played an important part in setting the stage for Biagini’s next matchup with Judge in the third.
The Yankees slugger walked to the plate with two out and a runner on second, after Aaron Hicks dropped a soft-hit flare into right, which carried a hit probability of nine per cent but still went for a double. Having nibbled at the edges in Judge’s first plate appearance, Biagini wasn’t messing around, coming after the right-handed hitter with heaters, the first a called strike at the top of the zone and the second a missed location out and over the plate that Judge hammered foul.
Ahead 0-2, Biagini stayed on his foe, coming back with another elevated fastball—the hardest one he threw all day at 94.2-m.p.h.—that Judge fouled off. If there was ever a time for a breaking ball this was it, and perhaps that’s what Maile thought Judge would be expecting as he chose a cutter that Biagini located up and on the outer half of the plate.
Maybe Judge was able to think along with the Blue Jays battery, or maybe he’s just this good. Either way, he crushed the pitch with all his might, smoking a 116-m.p.h. rocket to centre field that smacked off Kevin Pillar’s glove and dropped to the turf for a run-scoring double.
"I haven’t been finishing that pitch very well and I’ve been a little bit frustrated with that because last year it was one of my go-to pitches," Biagini said. "It’s one of those ones where, obviously as good of a hitter as [Judge] is, you’ve got to make sure you make the effort to make that adjustment."
As you may have guessed, that was the last time Judge saw that cutter. In his third plate appearance, Biagini came after him early with an elevated fastball that Judge fouled straight back, tempted him with a low changeup that went for a ball, and then went right back to that elevated fastball for a swinging second strike. Then, finally, in a breaking-ball count Biagini went to the curve and spotted it perfectly at the bottom of the strike zone where Maile held it out for a beat as the strike went uncalled.
In his first plate appearance, Biagini had followed up that well-located curve with another. This time he came back with that same elevated fastball, which Judge fouled off. Now Biagini really had options. He could’ve dropped in another curve, as Judge was perhaps expecting. He could have thrown a surprise changeup. He could have pulled out the cutter that Judge hadn’t seen in a while.
Or he could do none of that and double up on the fastball, which is exactly what happened as Biagini pounded a 94-m.p.h. dart on the inner half that Judge simply looked at for strike three.
And that is why the Blue Jays are so encouraged by Biagini’s ability as a starter. He gave Judge a different look each time he came to the plate and in the end—with Biagini’s pitch count up and effectiveness decreasing; with Judge having seen all of Biagini’s pitches and collected as much information as possible—he beat him with a simple fastball in.
"He’s got really good stuff, starting with a good heater," Maile said. "I certainly feel comfortable putting anything down."
That varied sequencing and unpredictability is how Biagini and Maile got through a dangerous Yankees lineup three times Saturday, with New York boasting only four hits—three of them weakly-hit flares, the other Judge’s thunderous double—to show for it. Biagini won’t be happy with the three runs on his line (only one of them earned) but reaching 100 pitches, and pitching seven innings, for the first time in his career is big for a second-year pitcher still finding his feet as a starter.
"I was talking to my dad last night on the phone and he was like, ‘Well, where would you rather be? You get the chance to see how your stuff translates against a good team like this,’" Biagini said. "There’s really nothing that you would rather be doing to kind of get a gauge of how it’s going for you. There are a couple adjustments that I need to make. But I felt like I just tried to keep attacking and stay in the strike zone and stay in front of them. Stay on the attack."
Biagini threw 41 fastballs, 40 curves, along with a smattering of cutters and changeups just to keep them in hitters’ minds. It was by far the most he’s thrown his curveball since becoming a starter last month, after he used it a season-high 24 times last week against Texas.
"It just looked really good. Their swings weren’t particularly good on it," Maile said. "It was just one of those things where when we needed a big pitch, that seemed to be the one that was really working."
As Biagini pointed out, while his cutter has taken a slight step back this season, his curveball and changeup have been terrific for him. If he can get all three secondary pitches working, add them to his strong fastball and throw any pitch in any count as has been his wont, Biagini’s ceiling as a starting pitcher will only continue to rise.
"Really, to be a good big-league pitcher you’ve got to be able to throw something besides your fastball when you fall behind. Because they lock in on that. And that’s when you get hit around pretty good," Gibbons said. "And Joe, he’s got a curveball he can throw over almost at will whenever he wants to or needs it. He’s got a nice little changeup he’s developing right now. And if you’re going to be a good big-league starter, you’ve got to be able to do that."
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