L.A. STORY
MIKE FIERS DOMINATES ANGELS WITH BEST PERFORMANCE SINCE NO-HITTING DODGERS IN 2015
Apparently all Mike Fiers needed was to be told he was out of the Astros’ rotation.
Fiers has been a different pitcher since manager A.J. Hinch notified the then-struggling righthander of his banishment to the bullpen May 27. The decision was reversed by necessity a day later when starter Charlie Morton required a stint on the disabled list, but Hinch appears to have gotten his point across.
In his three starts since, Fiers has a 1.96 ERA and a .508 on-base plus slugging percentage against. His gem in the Astros’ 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday wasn’t only his best of the season but one of the top outings the major league-leading Astros (44-19) have gotten from any of their starters through 63 games.
Fiers was charged with an unearned run and allowed two hits over 71 ⁄3 innings in front of an announced 41,296 at Minute Maid Park. His performance marked the first time he pitched into the seventh inning this season and the first time he worked into the eighth since his no-hitter Aug. 21, 2015, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Command of his four pitches and the return of a swing-and-miss curveball he can land for strikes have keyed his stretch of success. Perhaps most notably, he has kept the ball in the yard in each of his last three outings after serving up 18 homers through his first nine starts.
“You guys got some false advertisement earlier on this year,” Fiers said. “This is how I pitch. This is the pitcher I am.”
Effective curveball
Fiers had his curveball working Saturday, using the breaking pitch to put away five of the eight batters he struck out. Hinch thought everything worked off Fiers’ changeup.
Those two secondary pitches accounted for 10 of the 12 swings and misses Fiers got on his 95 pitches. He issued only two walks and hit a batter. Both Angels hits against him were singles, one in the fourth inning by Albert Pujols and the other against a defensive shift in the eighth by Luis Valbuena.
A fielding error by shortstop Carlos Correa on a Ben Revere grounder with one out in the eighth led to the only run against Fiers, the run scoring on an Andrelton Simmons groundout with Chris Devenski on the mound.
Fiers, who had a 5.21 ERA when alerted of the team’s plan to remove him from the rotation, improved his ERA to 4.29.
“I think I just figured it out at the right time,” he said. “My team needed me to come up with some big starts and I have.”
McCann goes deep
The Astros had 10 hits to the Angels’ two. Brian McCann lifted a solo home run in the second inning off Angels starter Ricky Nolasco, the catcher’s ninth of the season and the ninth of his career against Nolasco in 77 plate appearances.
McCann’s long ball marked the 18th consecutive game in which the Astros hit at least one homer, matching a franchise record set in May 2000. It also marked Nolasco’s 19th homer allowed, overtaking Fiers for the most in the American League.
A sacrifice fly by Yuli Gurriel in the fifth represented the Astros’ second run. Correa redeemed himself for his error with a run-scoring single in the ninth. Devenski finished the eighth for Fiers and Ken Giles converted the save in the ninth.
“It’s just a different game when you have your control and you’re throwing everything you want where you want,” Fiers said.
Hinch lauded Fiers’ ability to control at-bats and control bat speed against the Angels. The manager said Saturday’s was the best stuff Fiers brought into a start all season.
In his last three starts, Fiers has allowed only 14 hits in 181⁄3 innings. He has 20 strikeouts against six walks. The Astros have won all three games.
“He really wants to start,” Hinch said. “He takes everything very personal. … He beats himself up when he’s not perfect. I think when he was coming out of the rotation, for the 24 hours he was out of the rotation, it hit him a little bit.
“He bounced back and responded, which is what you ask your players to do is when they’re challenged to come back and do well and he certainly hasn’t missed a beat.”