Mariners reliever Matt Brash has made a habit of making batters look foolish. Last week, he almost made Twins utilityman Willi Castro fall down with a curveball in the dirt. On Monday night, he made Red Sox infielder Yu Chang his latest victim.
Brash worked a one-two-three seventh inning, throwing just 13 pitches in the process. The filthiest of those pitches was the second one he threw to Chang. Ahead in the count 0–1 after dropping a slider in the top of the zone, Brash went back to the slider again and Chang could only muster a feeble wave at it.
Matt Brash getting a Whiff on a Slider half-way into the opposite batters box. 😯 pic.twitter.com/prGgngVIVn
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 1, 2023
That’s one of the least competitive swings any hitter has had this season. The pitch was a good two feet outside the strike zone. It would be one thing if Chang had reached across the plate in an attempt to get a piece of it, but he just swung meekly at it as if it was right down the middle.
That speaks to how Brash’s slider is. He throws it hard enough to be mistaken for a fastball (that one was clocked at 90.5 mph) and when he throws it best, it breaks exceptionally late.
Chang shouldn’t feel too bad. After all, batters have swung and missed at nearly half of the sliders he’s thrown this season (49.7%). No one’s missed that badly, though.
