By now, everyone and their mother knows that two of the prominent players in the MLB postseason–Steven Matz of the New York Mets and Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays–hail from small towns on Long Island.
Photo Credit: Newsday
Stroman, whose miraculous return from ACL surgery was widely documented by the national media, won all four of his starts in September (all against the gauntlet of the AL East) and will be getting the Game 2 start against Cole Hamels on Friday in Toronto.
He struck out 18 over 27 innings, allowing five ER (1.67 ERA) and made each of those starts count. He beat the Yankees in his season debut on September 12, beat Boston in his next outing, outdueled Ivan Nova in Toronto his next time and then threw eight shutout frames in the AL East division clinching victory on September 30.
The 5’8″ right handed pitcher averaged 92.38 MPH with his fastball (according to MLB Stat Cast) which was down 1 MPH from his rookie year.
One noticeable difference was his increased reliance on the off speed pitches. He used his fastball only 48 percent of the time this season, as opposed to 55 percent last year. He increased his slider usage from 6 percent in ’14 to 16 percent this year. That is pretty significant, but it is no surprise considering Fan Graphs compared it to that of Chris Archer and Gerrit Cole.
He throws his cutter, curve and change up about equally, at 11 percent of the time. They are all very effective and he throws his cutter at 90.1 MPH which makes it very difficult for hitters to predict what’s coming.
Surprisingly, the Texas Rangers actually play better away from their home park (45 wins on the road was tied for the most in the majors). Still, it is huge for the Blue Jays to be playing in the comfort of their home stadium. He did shut them out over seven innings last season in what was the only time he faced them.
Stroman will need to watch out for the quartet of Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland, Shin-Soo Choo and Adrian Beltre who accounted for 86 HRs and over an .800 OPS.
It will be a tremendous match up, but if he continues to locate his pitches and keep the ball down they will not do much damage.
Matz, who also went 4-0 is not definitely starting yet. He will be throwing a 90-95 pitch simulated game today in Florida. If all goes well, however, he is expected to get the nod in Game 4 against Clayton Kershaw and the NL West division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Ward Melville grad pitched against them on July 5 and was masterful–throwing six shutout innings, holding them to two hits, two walks while striking out eight.
That dominance in Los Angeles against this same lineup gives the Mets’ brass the confidence that he can handle the pressure. Local fans knew that dating back to his Carl Yastrzemski Award winning season in ’09.
After that start, however, he was put on the disabled list with a strained lat and did not appear in another game until September 6 against Miami.
Overall, Matz threw 35.2 IP, allowed only 9 ER, struck out 34 and walked only 10. He compiled a 1.23 WHIP and held the opposition to a .250 AVG. He threw 66 percent of his pitches for strikes.
He threw very hard–he averaged 94.5 MPH with his fastball and he threw it 68 percent of the time–not quite Bartolo Colon territory but that is at a high frequency. He threw his curveball 19 percent of the time (averaged 77 MPH), his change up 9.9 percent of the time (83.6 MPH) and his slider as a distant fourth pitch, just 1.9 percent of the time (averaged 87.1 MPH). It should be noted that the slider is a new pitch that he added during a bullpen session with pitching coach Dan Warthen. Many of the Mets have adopted that pitch after Matt Harvey began to have such success with it.
If Matz does start, it will be a tall order to out pitch Kershaw,whom Warthen compared him to during last Spring Training. Fortunately, the game will be at Citi Field, where Matz dominated the New York Yankees on September 18.
Also, he will have the advantage against Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Corey Seager–three of the Dodgers best hitters, who all happen to be lefties.
It will be a time for Long Island to be proud of their two star pitchers and if all the stars align, perhaps their teams will face each other in the World Series…
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