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MINNEAPOLIS — After three fantastic home starts to begin his A’s career, Mike Fiers made his first appearance away from the Coliseum. The results were still impressive.
Taking his new and improved high-strikeout totaled self on the road, Fiers continues to stymie whatever offense is put in front of him. This time it was the Minnesota Twins, who he kept quiet to just one run over 5 2/3 innings in Saturday night’s 6-2 victory.
Reuniting with Jonathan Lucroy, his teammate from 2011-15 with Milwaukee, has worked wonders for Fiers. The right-hander has struck out at least six batters in three of his first four starts with Oakland after doing so just five times in 21 starts with the Detroit Tigers.
What’s led to the increased strikeout totals? It’s all about elevation.
The stuff is not all that overpowering, his fastball topped out around 92 mph. But Fiers’ ability to elevate the fastball higher in the zone as the count goes on has been key to making hitters salivate at the thought of hitting what looks like an average fastball, only to leave the plate investigating their bat to check for holes in it.
But it all starts with being aggressive early in the count, which Fiers was most of the night.
“When you’re around the plate more, guys are tempted to swing more. Once you recognize that, you can expand and go higher than high with the fastball and make pitches in the dirt,” Fiers said. “When guys are that aggressive, if you’re in the zone too much it can be a bad thing. Establishing the fastball early and once these guys start swinging, just expand.”
The variation in speeds has been a big key for Fiers. Three of the strikeouts came on curveballs, which reached speeds as low as 73 mph. With nearly a difference of 20 mph between pitches, Twins (61-68) hitters often looked mystified as they tried to guess what pitch was coming next.
“It’s the high fastball and the curveball. He pitches up and down in the zone as well as he does in and out. He’s not afraid to throw 89-90 mph up in the zone, and it plays a lot better with late life at the end,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “A lot of it has to do with the curveball that slows you down and comes out at the same plane.”
The deception in Fiers’ delivery makes a huge difference. He starts out by hiding the ball behind his back as he looks for the sign from Lucroy, never revealing it until it’s about to leave his hand. It’s what makes the fastball seem much faster than it acutally is.
“He’s always been like that, a flyball/strikeout pitcher. Not a ground ball pitcher,” Lucroy said. “But he does have some good off speed down in the zone and a sinker he can mix in. He has a lot of different ways to get you out. Nothing crazy or overpowering, but we find ways to mix and match to get some stuff by guys in big situations.”
One of those situations came in the third. With the Twins threatening with runners on first and second and Twins slugger Eddie Rosario at the plate, Fiers started out with two changeups down in the zone around 85 mph to go 1-1, a fastball letter-high and in at 91 mph that Rosario took for strike two, and finished it off for with a 92 mph fastball up in the zone for the strikeout to strand the runners.
Here’s a pitch-by-pitch sequence of that at-bat to Rosario: (If an error message is showing, just click on the links in the box)
“He’s always done that. He’s tough not to chase up. It looks good up there,” Melvin said. “It’s not 98, but a lot of it has to do with how he can elevate and go higher and higher.”
There’s still over a month of games left to play, but Fiers certainly is making a case for himself as the top mid-season acquisition in baseball. He’s now 3-0 in four starts with the A’s, posting a 1.50 ERA with 28 strikeouts as opposed to just three walks over 24 innings of work. Those 28 strikeouts are top-ten in the American League since Aug. 8, when he made his first start for the A’s.
“He finds a way to make a pitch when he has to,” Melvin said. “He’s been a terrific pick up for us in the fact that every time he goes out there, the guys feel like we have a great chance to win. He’s fit in really well.”
It was Fiers’ 10th win overall this year, now 10-6 with a 3.15 ERA in 25 starts. He’s now allowed three earned runs or less in 14 of his last 15 starts.
Lucroy reached a personal milestone in the second inning with single to right field that drove home Chad Pinder for what was his 500th career RBI. Later in the fourth, he became a part of A’s (78-52) history when he belted the franchise’s 13,000th home run, a three-run shot off Stephen Gonsalves that was also just his third homer of the season to put the A’s ahead by four runs at the time.
Going 2 for 4 with four RBIs on the day, Lucroy has now gone 5 for 8 with five RBIs since getting pulled for a pinch-hitter in Thursday’s loss, something he was none too happy about and used as motivation.
Lucroy said he’s worked to fix a flaw in his swing by trying to stay down and strong through the zone, trying to avoid casting in his swing.
“Whenever my mechanics are correct, I know I can compete at a very high level. I know I can,” Lucroy said. “I’ve done it in the past, and you just don’t lose it. It’s a mechanical issue that I’m trying to clean up, and it showed up tonight.”
Fiers played with Lucroy when he the catcher was at the top of his game offensively, including 2014 when he led the league with 53 doubles, so he knows the veteran has it in him.
“I’ve seen him be an All-Star, hit .300,” Fiers said. “It’s tough to do that on a yearly basis, but he’s still one of the best catchers in this game. The way he handles the staff, and he still can come up with big hits like tonight.”
Things got a little murky for the A’s in the seventh. Lou Trivino, who had come on in relief of Fiers to record the final out of the sixth, surrendered a solo home run to Tyler Austin on an 0-2 pitch with one out in the seventh to cut the A’s lead to two runs. After Trivino and Ryan Buchter both pitched and failed to record another out, Jeurys Familia nearly gave up the lead when Eddie Rosario smashed a line drive to left field that had every person at Target Field expecting to get out, but it died out at the wall for Pinder and the inning was over.
As the A’s love to do in the eighth inning, they scored again. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Matt Olson and Ramón Laureano pushed the A’s lead back to four runs, giving them 96 runs scored in the eighth inning of games this year, by far the most in baseball.
