Reliever takes dominating start in stride
Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino was religious in his ritual during the offseason and into spring training.
The 32-year-old right-hander would head to an indoor batting cage, and using either a piece of tape or the batter’s box line, he’d go through “dry” delivery drills, simulating a pitch, in an attempt to correct a stride that went askew and led to an errant 2017, when he posted a career-high total of walks.
“It was obvious to me from opening day last year that my stride was messed up — my balance was off, my landing foot was off, my head was moving, I couldn’t clearly focus on the target,” Ottavino said. “I was terrible; I walked everybody. I can live with getting hit, but when you’re beating yourself, that’s bad.”
Ottavino walked 39 batters in 53 innings a season ago, a big reason for his 5.06 ERA.
His diligence to get his stride back — “it’s across my body but not as extreme as before,” he said — is paying dividends. He’s tied for the major league lead among relievers with 14 strikeouts and has yet to allow a run in seven innings. And his control is back. He has issued just one walk.
Ottavino wowed again in the Rockies’ 7-6 loss to San Diego on Monday night, when he struck out the side for the third time this season while displaying command of an increasingly varied arsenal.
“It’s a combination of the fastball in the strike zone with velocity,
and then with the breaking ball, he has the confidence to throw it in any count,” manager Bud Black said. “The opposition doesn’t know what’s coming. Could be a fastball, could be a breaking ball, could be a variance of the breaking ball, could be a fastball with some movement.”
Ottavino invested in an innova- tive high-speed camera during the offseason as part of his efforts to film himself and look closely at his delivery and grip to figure out a pitch that would complement his fastball and his regular slider.
“I’m getting ahead in the count more this year, and throwing more strikes,” Ottavino said. “If you look at my swing rate on my pitches, last year I was second lowest in the whole league (at 35.0 percent) — they were just standing there — and it’s even lower this year (at 31.6 percent) but in a good way.”
This year, instead of throwing balls, he’s throwing a breaking pitch that has hitters off-balance and hitting a collective .050 against him heading into Tuesday night’s game against San Diego.
“He’s got the ability to make it sweeping, he’s got the ability to make it go down,” Rockies reliever Mike Dunn said. “So in a sense, it’s almost two completely different pitches coming at you from the same spot.”
To continue his torrid start, Ottavino said his focus is not necessarily on painting pitches but, rather, on filling up the strike zone.
“Last year, I walked so many guys that at some point in the year, hitters decided to start waiting me out to get a good count or a walk,” he said. “That was the report coming into this year, and the only thing you can do as a pitcher in that spot is flip that on its head and throw a lot of strikes.”