Man, what is the deal with Hunter Strickland?
Typically, the 26-year-old right-hander would be a nice story, the type we love to celebrate during the postseason. Prior to this year, Strickland was a career minor leaguer, drafted by the Red Sox in 2007 and playing in the Boston and Pittsburgh organizations before landing with the Giants last year.
After compiling a 2.09 ERA in 41 appearances between advanced Single-A and Double-A this season — with 55 strikeouts in 38.2 innings — Strickland was a September call-up for San Francisco. What a weapon this guy could be for the Giants during their September playoff push and postseason run. As those strikeout numbers indicate, he can bring the heat. His fastball averages 98 mph.
Unfortunately, those rocket launcher fastballs don’t seem to have a lot of movement to them. If there’s one thing we’ve learned in recent years as more MLB teams bring more hard-throwers out of the bullpen than we’ve ever seen before, it’s that upper-90 mph fastballs do need to move to be truly effective. There has to be some late run inside or away from batters. The ball has to drop. It can’t just take a straight path to the catcher’s mitt.
If not, major league hitters will eventually catch up those pitches, regardless of how fast they are. Give them a chance to time the ball, especially if they know it’s not going to veer from its original direction, and it will eventually get crushed. We saw that early on in Game 2 of the World Series Wednesday night. Yordano Ventura throws just as hard — if not harder — than Strickland, averaging 97 mph on his fastball, but reaching 100 mph when needed. Maybe he thought he could blow away Giants leadoff hitter Gregor Blanco with pure heat.
Ventura’s first seven pitches were fastballs, clocked between 95 and 97 mph. The eighth pitch was 98 mph. But it was straight as a tabletop and was thrown right down the middle of the strike zone, belt-high to the batter. Blanco is no one’s idea of a slugger, having hit five home runs and slugged .374 during the regular season. Yet as Ventura continued to challenge him and finally teed up a pitch he wasn’t going to miss, Blanco crushed it into the right-field seats for a home run and 1-0 Giants lead.
The Royals rookie apparently learned his lesson from there, settling down and allowing just one more run and seven more hits as he pitched into the sixth inning. But if Strickland was watching from the Giants’ bullpen, the result of Ventura’s pitch to Blanco didn’t register.
With one out in the sixth inning, Strickland entered the game, replacing Javier Lopez as San Francisco’s fourth pitcher of the game. (Actually, he was the fourth Giants pitcher for that inning.) The Royals had runners on first and second. They advanced to second and third after Strickland threw a wild pitch. Strickland’s fourth pitch to Salvador Perez was 97 mph, but he left it out over the plate, allowing Perez to extend his arms in his swing and smack it for a two-run double.
Against the next batter, Omar Infante, Strickland threw two fastballs. The first one — clocked at 96 mph — tailed away from Infante for ball one. He tried to come inside on the next pitch, a 98 mph fastball. Though it wasn’t right down the middle of the strike zone, Strickland left the pitch belt-high to Infante and there was no movement on it. Boom. Infante launched the ball over the left-field fence for a two-run homer and an insurmountable 7-2 Royals lead.
As with Blanco, we’re not talking about a slugger here. Infante has shown some pop in his career. He hit 10 home runs last season for the Tigers, and hit 16 in 2004, his first full season as a major leaguer. But this year, the 32-year-old veteran infielder hit six home runs and slugged .337. But Strickland threw into Infante’s comfort zone as a hitter, and the pitch doesn’t veer from a straight path on its way to the plate, so that 98 mph fastball was hit hard and far.
This is where it all fell apart for Strickland. Obviously, it’s understandable that he would be upset about serving up a knockout blow home run that puts the game out of reach for his team. Strickland may also have been wondering just why this keeps happening to him. During the postseason, he’s allowed five home runs. And he’s only pitched 5.1 innings during the playoffs. No matter how you try to spin that math, it’s not good for him.
Strickland’s frustration appeared to boil over as Perez and Infante rounded the bases. After Perez crossed home plate to score his run, he and Strickland locked into a staring match. According to his postgame account, the Royals catcher then yelled over at the pitcher, “What are you looking at me for?” Strickland responded by telling Perez to get back in the dugout. Although he hardly said so diplomatically, and if you’re good at reading lips, Strickland appears to have said something that Perez could take offense to.
Sure, this was mostly a case of boys being boys, with Perez and Strickland facing off to measure their respective manhoods. Neither player came off looking good in a such a silly exchange, nor did each team’s bench (and bullpen) running on to the field. Was this really going to happen? A brawl in the World Series? And not one triggered by a pitch too far inside or a batter being hit by a beanball, but some perceived breach of baseball etiquette or unwritten rule? Considering we had a regular season full of such silliness, maybe this was bound to happen.
Eventually — thankfully — tempers cooled down and the game resumed. Strickland’s night was finished, though. And you wonder if his days of pitching with the Giants are as well. Certainly, you have to wonder if he’s done for this World Series. Not only can’t Bochy trust Strickland in a high-leverage situation when a strikeout is needed (presumably the reason he’s on the roster), but if he can lose his composure so easily, that can’t be someone the Giants want on the field.
Strickland admitted that he lost control of his emotions and handled the situation poorly. In the Division Series against the Nationals, Strickland and Bryce Harper had a similar confrontation. Harper hit two home runs off Strickland during the series, and following the second one, the Nats outfielder stared at the pitcher as he rounded the bases and shouted at him from the dugout after scoring and celebrating with teammates.
Harper seemingly deserves the blame for that confrontation, having showed poor composure of his own. It would be difficult to blame Strickland for getting upset in such a situation. Yet Harper was reportedly reacting to Strickland telling reporters after giving up his first home run in the series that he would challenge the Nationals hitters in the same way.
Perhaps Strickland should be commended for having confidence in his stuff, and that approach surely helped him get to the majors this season. But it sure doesn’t sound like he’s learned much since the beginning of October.
In Strickland’s defense, he’s a young guy. His teammates and manager pointed that out in postgame comments. At 26, he appears to have a bright future ahead of him — especially since he can throw the baseball so hard. Making the jump from Double-A to pitching in the World Series is probably overwhelming. A season or two from now, we may be talking about how crucial this was in Strickland’s development, the fire that forged a piece of iron.
But if he can’t be relied upon, that’s a big problem for San Francisco. Between this and Tim Lincecum’s back injury, Giants manager Bruce Bochy could be down two relievers for the rest of this World Series. This postseason has continually showed us the importance of middle relief, providing a bridge between starting pitcher and late-inning bullpen arms.
Tim Hudson could bail the Giants out and give his manager a break with a strong effort in Game 3. However, if he can’t get through the sixth inning, Bochy isn’t left with many options. Lack of bullpen depth cost the other eight teams in this postseason. Will the Giants be the next victim, partly because one of their relievers couldn’t keep his cool in pressure situations?
