Ryne Nelson Next Up to Face Unprecedented Shohei Ohtani
Ryne Nelson will try to keep the momentum going tonight for the Diamondbacks when they face the Angels at 7:07 P.M. first pitch.
The D-backs 49-34 record has then two games up on the Dodgers in the NL West. The Angels are 44-40, six games back of the Rangers in the AL West, but just two games back out of a Wild Card spot.
Lineups
Jack Sommers
Shohei Ohtani is batting third for the Angels tonight. Last night he hit a 493 foot solo homer in the Angels 6-2 loss. Ohtani leads all major league players with 6.7 WAR, with 4.0 of that coming as a position player and 2.7 coming as a pitcher. He leads all of MLB in homers, (30), RBI (67), OPS (1.070) . As a pitcher he's 7-3 with a 3.03 ERA and is 3rd in strikeouts with 127.
There closest thing to this in major league history is Babe Ruth. But the only season Ruth had a significant WAR total in both hitting and pitching in the same year was 1918 when he 4.7 batting WAR and 2.3 pitching WAR for a total of 7.0 WAR. Ohtani has already reached that level in half a season. What he is doing is unprecedented, and he's been doing it for three years running.
Corbin Carroll is still out of the lineup with a sore shoulder, although he says he's feeling good. Kyle Lewis is getting into his first game since getting recalled from Triple-A Reno at the start of this series yesterday
Pitching Matchup
Jack Sommers
Ryne Nelson is coming off his best start of the year last time out against the Giants on June 25th. The Diamondbacks had dropped the first two games of the series and Nelson stepped up with seven innings of one run ball, allowing just three hits and striking out six. It was the second straight outing he struck out six batters, and he now has 12 K's in his last 12 innings of work.
This is an important step for Nelson as prior to those two outings his strikeout rate was the second lowest in MLB among qualified starting pitchers. Even with the recent bump, his 16.1% strikeout rate is still the 5th lowest and well below the league average starting pitcher 22%.
In the June 25th outing he had an especially effective changeup, generating seven whiffs on 13 swings. As with most young pitchers, he needs to locate his fastball and setup his off speed pitches. While Nelson hasn't walked a lot of batters, (3.0/9) he's had issues with fastball location inside the zone resulting in a lot of hard contact and base hits. He intentionally dialed back the fastball velocity in the last outing, and that helped him command the pitch better. He can max out at 98 and has averaged close to 95 during the season but last outing his fastball sat at 93.4 average MPH
His opponent on the mound is left hander Tyler Anderson. He's made 16 prior starts against the Diamondbacks, so the coaches and veteran hitters know him well. He has a funky delivery with a delayed leg kick he uses to upset hitter timing. He throws a 90 MPH fastball, a changeup, and a cutter. He'll occasionally mix in a sinker or slider, but not often. His cutter is generally his most effective pitch, although last year he had a terrific feel for the changeup. In 2023 the change has not been nearly effective and that may be the primary culprit for his disappointing season so far.
