Lance Lynn has been around Major League Baseball long enough for batters to have ample video of his pitches to study.
That players do, and still have trouble hitting his pitches anyways, goes to show just how dominant an arsenal the 35-year-old is working with. Just ask Joc Pederson, a two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion who was fooled so badly by Lynn’s cutter on Thursday that he swung at a pitch that wound up hitting him.
In Pederson’s defense, the pitch looked like it was going right down the middle of the plate up until the moment it didn’t. In Lynn’s defense, Pederson should know better by now.
Lance Lynn struck out Joc Pederson by hitting him pic.twitter.com/8mFzKco0e9
— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) April 6, 2023
Lynn, who primarily relies on his cutter, has struck Pederson out five times prior to Thursday’s meeting.
There’s a very solid chance Pederson’s embarrassing strikeout was just a case of karma from the baseball gods. On Wednesday, a would-be lineout to first base became an unfathomable single after the San Francisco outfielder hit the ball so hard it went through the webbing of Andrew Vaughn’s glove as the White Sox infielder attempted to snag it.
