Clicked on the game in the 8th and got ready to switch it off again ... whoa, hope that wasn't Erasmo starting tonight, though?  "If you just joined us, Hector Noesi gave up seven runs in an inning and a third tonight..."  Whew.   Then they cut to the bullpen.  Clayface warming up.  Now we're talking in!

Pryor opened the ninth.  He drew the front leg up in the weird way that he does, nice and slow ... shoulders relaxed.  He brought the hand into the backstroke with deliberateness.  He smoothly reached back, started forward ... WHOOOM, 96 miles an hour, right on the black, fouled back.   Ohhhh-kayyyyy.

He took the new ball from the catcher, got the sign, took his set ... 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

And Oh. So. Calmly. drew in a breath, paused for a count of two.  One, two.  And very deliberately pulled the golf club away from the ball in slow motion.

Dr. D's smile lit up and he actually chuckled.  Last time Pryor pitched, Dr. D had thrown a hissy fit about Pryor's tempo and pace:  the man literally was not finished settling into his set before he bounced back up out of it and yanked his arm back.  Pitch after pitch, as though he were bouncing on a trampoline.  

In case you just joined us, a HURRIED golf shot is rushed because ---- > the golfer subconsciously dislikes the experience, because he wants it to be over with as soon as possible.  Pryor's slower pace was great in itself; it kept him "in the moment" and implied that he actually likes the game of baseball.  And likes this particular pitch, this one, that he's about to throw, even if the batter swings hard at it.  You like to pitch there, don't you Stephen?  Pitching involves giving up hits and stuff.  But it's fun.

............

The pace was great, but much more important was that slow takeaway.  Golfers know that "slow going back equals fast going forward."  Moe could tell you exactly why this is -- I couldn't -- but a real fast backswing actually slows down your throughswing.  It's axiomatic.

And Stephen Pryor did that.  With a slow, slow, sllllooooowwwwwwww backstroke, his fastballs to the leadoff man were 96, 97, 99!, 98 ....

...........

As SSI readers are aware, Pryor has had two challenges, one major and one minor.  The release point is the major one.  Guess how many games it took to fix the release point?  ONE GAME.  Guess how much it was fixed?  TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY.

Moe will attest, we're confident, to the idea that a good golfer (say, 5-handicapper) in a slump could fix his entire game by identifying a rushed takeaway.  It just fixes everything for a golfer in that situation.  The swing, club, everything just lines up once the backswing is right.  In this case the release point lined up.

*True that you can't be super slow with runners on.  But there's a feel to a smooth backstroke.  You can be quick and yet not hurry.  Whatever clock time it takes, you can be smooth, pull the ball back, rather than being shrill and jerking it back.

You can't really overdo this technique.  Jack Nicklaus said that he took the club away from the ball as slow as physically possible consistent with "swinging" it away.

..........

The minor issue, in my view, could be wrong, was not changing the eye level enough.  Especially in terms of throwing sliders at the knees and fastballs high enough so hitters wouldn't know whether to swing.  Not so this time.  Pryor threw the fastball up, the slider down .... the slider up, deliberately up at times, and confused batters who thought high pitches were fastballs.

Confused Orioles hitters just could not put the man in play.  He threw 11 fastballs for strikes; 9 of them were taken or foul-tipped back.  The other two were fanned on.  Twenty-five pitches, all around the zone, and only 4% of them were tapped into play fair (Endy Chavez rolled a slider to Justin Smoak).  Okay, we'll visual it:  here's the leadoff man ...

 ..........................................

Four pitches on the black, a slider dropping just down out of the zone, and a change-the-eye-level slider. PURR-FECT.  Shame the ump called that 99 MPH teacup pitch a ball, ain't it.  ... and here's the last hitter, McClouth:

h: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; ">One asterisk.  Is the unrushed takeaway here for good?  Carter Capps' sidearm angle "took."  But that's the only asterisk.  Pryor stops hurrying the backstroke, evens out his pace, he's here.

Okay by me,

Dr D