The Mets beat the Cubs 7-6, after a wild affair on Thursday. Back-to-Back games where a lot went down in the series between these two ballclubs. After a controversial call ended the Wednesday game for the Cubs, the Mets rebounded with a Walk-Off win in the Eleventh after ending innings with a play at the plate in both top of the 10th and the 11th. While those were the main storylines, the Mets got a start from struggling starter Adrian Houser, who again didn’t have a good line. Houser went 5 innings, allowing four runs on four hits and walks. His ERA on the season went down to 8.16, showing exactly what type of year the 31-year-old righty is having. However, I believe Houser was better than his line indicated.
Houser his bread and butter is his Sinking Fastball. He doesn’t need strikeouts to perform well, and, in this outing, he got just two. However, the Sinker was working as Houser got what he needed with that pitch.
Ground Balls! Houser threw his Sinker 57% of the time. In 82 total pitches, Houser threw the pitch 47 times. His Velo on the Sinker was improved by 1.2 mph on average, resulting in a slight improvement on his spinrate. Of the 47 Sinkers, Houser threw 31 Sinker for strikes. With him having four walks overall, that’s a very solid rate.
Houser started off by getting two soft ground balls and a strikeout on a Sinker in the first. In the second he got a quick out on a Sinker to Morell, who hit it hard, but it was an easy play for then Short Stop Wendle. After a Buch Double on the Sinker, which was lifted slightly by the left-handed batter and a Walk, Houser got exactly what he needed from Madrigal, a ground ball too short. However, Wendle waited on the ball and threw late to second. Wisdom (who walked) beat it out and the Bases were loaded with one out.
Now, we are aware that Houser isn’t a strikeout machine, so he looked to get jet another ground ball in his at bat with PCA. He did get a Grounder, but to the left of McNeil, so he couldn’t get the Double Play he needed. An Earned run in the books, but an inning Houser did what he had to do.
After that Second inning, Houser kept getting Ground Balls. However, two walks got him into trouble in the third. After a Ground out from Hoerner, Houser walked Tauchman and Happ, missing on the arm side to Happ a lot. He ended up putting up a zero with help from Brett Baty, who turned a diving stop into a double play. The ball got a .270 Expected Batting Average, which shows Houser got an out. Something he deserved with the contact Morell made.
In the fourth Houser, allowed a Single on his Curveball, but ended up with a quick inninggetting two ground balls on the Sinker. The Fifth, Houser got Gomez for a quick three pitch strikeout, surprising his with a Four Seamer on the corner. Hoerner followed with a Single on Houser his Slider. But Houser got Tauchman on a soft liner on another Sinker, getting the second out in the fifth.
Unfortunately, it went bad after that. Houser walked Happ and Morell hit his only mistake with his Bread and Butter. After an outing where he kept his Sinker down in the zone for the most part, Morell got to a Middle-in Sinker and drove it out of the ballpark. The ball had a .350 expected batting average, so wasn’t a ball with the Launch Angle and Exit Velo, that would have gotten a good result for the hitter just 35%. Still, it was hit hard and not placed where you want to as a Sinker baller. Houser ended his outing with his 13th Ground ball out (Counted the DP for 2 Ground Ball outs).
Getting Ground Balls is very important for Houser and it was an improvement over his earlier outings. Although the results were still bad, that’s a promising sign. The hope is that Houser found his Sinker in this outing and can continue that trend in his next outing. If that’sthe case, I believe he will have some better results coming up.
