Dallas Keuchel, who brings a 0.96 ERA into his fifth start tonight, is inducing ground balls at a staggering rate in 2017.
CLEVELAND — The season is young, but through four starts Dallas Keuchel’s ground-ball rate exceeds his breakout 2014 season and Cy Young Award-winning 2015 campaign by a significant margin.
Keuchel comes into his start Tuesday night against the Cleveland Indians having induced grounders on 70 percent of balls in play, according to Baseball Info Solutions. Such a rate almost certainly isn’t sustainable over a six-month season, but it’s another sign of how well Keuchel has been commanding his pitches.
Keuchel has been pounding the bottom of the strike zone, elevating his pitches sparingly. He said he didn’t feel much of a need to work up in the zone until his last start, when he allowed one run in seven innings against the Los Angeles Angels and lost a tenth of a point in his now0.96 ERA.
“I’m just trying to entice some early contact,” he said. “If it’s a ground ball, that’s great. But outs are outs, so if it’s a fly ball, that’s fine as well. I’m not looking to have the highest ground-ball percentage in history, but if that’s the way I get outs, then so be it.”
Keuchel led all qualified starters with a 63.5 ground-ball percentage in 2014 and ranked second to Brett Anderson (66.3) at 61.7 percent in 2015. The bearded lefthander fell to 56.7 percent in his strugglefilled 2016, which tied with Jaime Garcia for second best behind only Marcus Stroman (60.1).
Keuchel’s current major league-best, ground-ball rate should normalize some as the season advances, but for comparison’s sake, only three other pitchers exceed even 60 percent through three weeks of the schedule. Lance McCullers is the next-best Astros starter at 57.6 percent.
“It’s his ability to command multiple pitches,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Keuchel’s “skyrocketed” ground-ball rate. “I think most people will generally (look) right to his sinker. His two-seam fastball is really good, especially down in the zone. His angle is good. But a lot of it is his breaking ball.
“He can do anything he wants with his breaking ball when his fastball command is right. That tandem is very, very good. And then he mixes in the changeup, and he’s the complete pitcher that we’ve come to expect.”
Hinch said he thinks Keuchel has been as impressive in utilizing his pitches as he has been in the manager’s three seasons with the Astros, a span that includes the pitcher’s Cy Young campaign in 2015.
“His sequencing and his ability to execute has been his calling card,” Hinch said.
Odds and ends
Brian McCann’s .872 OPS ranked second among major league catchers (minimum 50 plate appearances) behind only Miami’s J.T. Realmuto (.902) coming into Monday’s slate of games. … Carlos Correa’s .588 OPS ranked 18th among major league shortstops entering Monday. …
Mike Hauschild will start for Class AAA Fresno on Thursday in his first outing since the Texas Rangers returned the Rule 5 draft pick to the Astros on Saturday. … Astros top pitching prospect Francis Martes (0-0, 2.92) will make his next Class AAA start Saturday.