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When Chad Kuhl’s Sinkerball Doesn’t Sink

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PITTSBURGH — Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Chad Kuhl is a sinkerball pitcher. Sometimes, when things are going so well or he gets a bit too amped up, he overthrows his sinker and it, well, doesn’t.

The topic has been well covered on this site. There was this story from the first week of the season on that subject. It cropped up last year, as well.

But there might be a bit more heaped on if those issues continue this season. To increase his pitch arsenal and get more swings and misses, Kuhl has been working on including an elevated, four-seam fastball into his repertoire.

The theory is that with the book on Kuhl’s sinker getting around, a batter looking low and away all the time wont be able to catch up to some heat around his hands.

But if Kuhl is overthrowing, and the sinker is more elevated in the zone, it takes away the separation between the two pitches, giving the hitter just one place to look for either fastball.

“Yeah, you want to go up and down,” Kuhl said. “Tonight, we didn’t really have the down working. So it was just kind of the four-seamer up and showing that and the two-seamer just wasn’t as effective.”

There was another troubling trend that played out, as well. Kuhl has now faced the Cubs four times in his 18 career starts, and he has a 15.75 ERA against them. His next highest ERA against any single opponent is 4.85 against the St. Louis Cardinals. Of his 49 career runs allowed, 21 of them (42.9 percent) have come against the Cubs.

Kuhl said he didn’t think there’s anything special about the Cubs’ hitters compared to the rest of the league, but Chicago does have some elite left-handers in Jason Heyward, Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber. Those three combined to go 2 for 4 with four RBIs, two walks, a stolen base and four runs.

“I feel like we tried to attack them as best as we could,” Kuhl said. “The balls that they were hit, I think they were just flat. Four-seamers or two-seamers. They were just elevated.”

DOVYDAS DEBUT

Dovydas Neverauskas made his major-league debut. His fastball was sitting in between 97 and 98 mph, with his curveball down at 84 and his cutter in between. He said that represented a bit of an increase from his usual velocity, probably due to the adrenaline of making his first MLB appearance and the first ever by a Lithuanian-born and -raised player.

“Awesome,” he said, describing the emotions. “This is the moment I’ve waited for, worked for it. I’m happy. I was really excited.”

He made some nice pitches, getting Rizzo to ground into a double play. He also got taken to the wall in right-center by Albert Almora, Jr. — something that Hurdle said isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“You like the velocity,” Hurdle said. “Some downhill angle. The cut fastball. I think it was also good for him to see that 97 in the middle of the plate is going to get hit a little bit, too.”

Neverauskas didn’t even get to the ballpark until the sixth inning after having been called up earlier in the afternoon, and he didn’t have to wait long until he was into the game.

“I just got here, got in there in and got outs,” he said. “I didn’t even think about.”

Hurdle said the team saved the ball from both his first pitch and first strikeout, not just for Neverauskas, but to commemorate the history being made.

“It’s the first ball thrown ball a Lithuanian in major-league history,” Hurdle said. “The first strikeout. There was some cool stuff. We’re proud of him and very happy for him.”

Hurdle explained the reason for making the move to replace Frazier with a relief pitcher, saying that the back-end of the bullpen has been overworked to this point in the season and he doesn’t want to have to use them in games the Pirates are losing — just how it played out.

He also added that Neverauskas was the one to get the call because he had been pitching well and had been off the ninth before, making him available to help right away.

Here’s more from Neverauskas on his big-league debut:

UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE

Jose Osuna showed why he’s become Hurdle’s primary option against left-handers in right field, going 3 for 3 against Chicago starter Brett Anderson. He also showed why he’s still a work in progress defensively, missing a catchable ball that contributed to Kuhl’s big second inning. There were a couple others that a more athletic right fielder might have gotten to, as well.

“There’s one catchable ball out there,” Hurdle said. “The other balls, he got to what he could get to. He usually gloves it if he can get to it. You saw him go up to the plate and swing the bat.”

Osuna’s three hits contained a single, a double and a triple, leaving him a home run away from the cycle, but maybe more importantly, showing some gap-to-gap power that the Pirates have been desperately missing in the lineup. He had three of the team’s seven hits and two of the three that went for extra bases.

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