Home run doesn’t spoil Kuhl’s outing
Some pitches in arsenal need more work than others
In the bottom of the first inning of the Pirates game Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, Chad Kuhl faced a formidable opponent.
The Phillies ran out multiple starters including outfielder Bryce Harper, who made his spring training debut as the Phillies designated hitter. With one out and a runner on base, Harper stepped up to the plate, caught a 1-1 fastball over the middle and launched it deep to left-center field for a two-run homer.
Kuhl got through the rest of that inning and allowed a double in the second but prevented more harm from being done. Really, even the home run was only cosmetic harm. It looks bad on the surface, but it doesn’t mean all that much to Kuhl at this early stage of spring training.
“Everything was good. I got ahead of hitters,” Kuhl said after his two-inning outing was finished. “Gave up a two-run home run and a double off my fourthbest pitch. It’s something we’re working on. Other than that, I really like the results. I was in the zone with the fastball and threw probably five or six changeups.”
That fourth-best pitch he’s referring to is his four-seam fastball, and he seems to be tweaking most of his arsenal. His slider is his wipeout pitch. He’s said before that he hardly throws it in bullpen sessions because he knows it will be there when he needs it in game.
His curveball isn’t really a work in progress, either, so Kuhl’s fastball usage is a main focus for him this spring.
Back when he first made his way to the Pirates’ roster in 2016, and in the two seasons that followed when he was a part of the starting rotation, his main fastball was his two-seam. At the end of 2018, though, Kuhl underwent Tommy John surgery, missed the entire 2019 season and was only able to return for the beginning of 2020 because the season was delayed by COVID19.
As he recovered, Kuhl said he threw mostly four-seamers just to get his arm back to full strength, and with the quick turnaround before the season began, the four-seam became his main fastball. Now, he’s trying to get back to using the two-seam more, if for no other reason than that he believes it’s a more effective pitch when correct.
In that sense, Friday was progress. In Kuhl’s first start of the spring last Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles, he spiked the two-seamer a couple of times when his arm action was coming across his body more than he wanted.
Facing the Phillies, it was more effective. For example, he got former Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen to swing and miss at it in the first inning. The pure statistics in spring training games aren’t really the focal point, though. It’s more how he feels with the pitch. After Harper hit his home run, Kuhl threw two more pitches that inning. Both were two-seamers, and both resulted in first- pitch groundouts.
“If you were to give me 2016, 2017, 2018, old Chad Kuhl’s twoseam … I’m looking to get that back,” Kuhl said. “... Just getting that back, it’s somewhere in my top pitches. It’s so valuable.”
The idea is that an improved two-seam will help the rest of the arsenal, too. The work with the four- seam isn’t necessarily tweaking the shape or grip of the pitch, it’s usage.
As Kuhl says himself, the four-seam is his fourth- best pitch. Why would he throw that more than his two-seam if the latter is better? It’s a matter of deception. The pitches look different and, if all are working well enough to throw, it’s that much harder for a hitter to identify which is hurtling
toward him.
“It’s just picking when and where to use [the four-seam] because it was the only thing that got hit today,” Kuhl said. “It’s a four- seam- fastball- hunting league. With everybody throwing so hard now, guys have wicked breaking stuff. It’s just kind of picking when and where.”
To round it out, Kuhl’s continuing to tweak his fifth pitch — his changeup. He entered spring training this season with a different grip than he had in previous
seasons and threw several of them Friday.
It may seem ridiculous, but that is the sort of bar for progress in spring training for Kuhl. The work being done on pitches has to translate to confidence in the pitch, which means feeling good enough to simply throw it in live action. From there, he can start to look at results.
That’s why, despite some hard contact on the four-seam fastball, it’s easy for Kuhl to view Friday as a success. All five pitches were used against the Phillies.
Some worked better than others, but the repertoire is rounding into shape and another game of work for all of them is welcome progress. That’s what spring training is for, after all.
“It’s just seeing feedback like that and being around the zone, being in a good spot with it,” Kuhl said. “It gives you that instant feedback that you’re looking for.”