Melancon hardly flashy
Pirates closer uses pinpoint location, not blazing fastball, to record MLB-best 51 saves.
The greatest season by a Pittsburgh Pirates reliever began with doubt.
About Mark Melancon’s command. About the state of his right arm. About his ability to close the door.
Standing in a quiet clubhouse on April 21 following a 9-8 loss to the Cubs — a game in which Chicago tagged Melancon for three runs in the ninth — Melancon calmly answered every question with the confidence of a man whose belief in himself wasn’t shaken even as his ERA ballooned to 8.53.
When pressed on if he was concerned about a fastball that was topping out at only 90 mph, Melancon’s voice betrayed a hint of the edge his teammates have known about for years.
“What is the drop in velocity?” Melancon asked. “I don’t pay attention to that. I’m worried about results.”
Six months later, the questions are all gone.
That shaky inning against the Cubs marked the launch point for one of the best summers by a closer ever. Melancon converted his next 35 opportunities on his way to a major league-high 51 saves, a club record for a franchise that dates to the Chester A. Arthur administration.
That total includes one of the defining moments of Pittsburgh’s 98-win season. Facing the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sept. 25, Melancon came on in the ninth to protect a tworun lead and boost Pittsburgh’s lead over Chicago for the top spot in the NL wild-card race.
A double and a triple put the tying run at third with one out. Nine pitches later, the normally reserved Melancon tossed his hat into the air after striking out Jorge Soler and Javier Baez.
“Every pitch he threw was right where he wanted to put it in a very heavy situation,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Even if Melancon, 30, doesn’t do it like some of his brethren. In a position filled with guys whose arms may as well be lightning bolts with ligaments, Melancon’s stuff is far less overwhelming. His fastball average of 91.3 mph was a career low, a full 5 mph lower than the two guys who followed him on the saves list, St. Louis’ Trevor Rosenthal and Jeurys Familia of the Mets.
And yet it hardly mattered. Opponents hit just .207 off Melancon, who was more exclamation point than question mark at the back end of one of baseball’s best bullpens — thanks to a cutter and a breaking ball that spends most of their time from his glove to home plate in a straight line only to veer off at the last moment.
“The curveball never gets there,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “He’s been outstanding. I’ve seen him good in the past, but he seems to be healthy right now. He’s good. He’s really good.”
The speakers at PNC Park blast AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” whenever Melancon jogs to the mound, but it’s a bit of aural misdirection. Melancon beats hitters with brains more than bombast.
“When you can locate the ball,” Hurdle said, “you don’t have to do all those other things that some of that elite group does.”