Michael Grove made the opening day roster after Ryan Pepiot went on the IL with an oblique injury for an undisclosed period of time and got the start last night for the Dodgers. Grove gave up 3 earned runs in 4.0 innings, so while the numbers don’t look great they don’t tell the story about his performance.
Grove was cruising through 4 innings, then walked the leadoff hitter, Ryan McMahon, to start the 5th. In that at-bat, he led him off with a curveball that broke out of the zone, then backed that up with 3 fastballs that were all strikes. After getting McMahon in an 1-2 hole, McMahon spoiled a very good curveball, but Grove was still in control. That’s when Grove pulled a curveball, a fastball, and a slider out of the zone on 3 consecutive pitches, and that is 100%, completely, totally, and entirely on him.
But, the 2nd walk of the inning to Mike Moustakas wasn’t.
Moustakas walked on a 3-2 pitch that absolutely, totally, and entirely WAS strike 3. In fact, although ball 3 was definitely a ball, it wasn’t a ball by much.
Grove hadn’t walked a batter all night until the 5th inning and had been around the zone, and, typically, when pitchers are around the zone, they tend to get the borderline pitches. Not in this case though, and, possibly the toughest part of the tough luck last night for Grove was, that, if the 3-2 pitch to Moustakas had been called properly, it was going to be a “strike ’em out, throw ’em out” double play and the Rockies were going to have 2 outs and no one on. Instead, they had runners on 1st and 2nd base with no one out.
At that point, Grove was squarely in a pickle and needed to minimize the damage, something of which, he did, although he didn’t. Make sense?
If not, let me explain.
Grove led off the next hitter, Elias Diaz, with a “dirty” slider for strike 1. He followed that up with an even “dirtier” curve ball for strike 2. He was in control of that at-bat at that point and was in good shape to get that elusive first out. But, instead of just getting the “first” out, he actually did the job to get both the first and second outs.
On the next pitch, Grove threw a very, very good slider on the outer half of the plate, Diaz was out front and hit an 83.8 MPH ground ball that should have been a routine double play. Muncy, however, was shifted over playing Diaz to go the other way on the outside pitch that Grove threw, and, instead of being in a position to start the double play, had to dive after the ball and couldn’t get to it.
To add to the “tough luck” factor of that situation, of all the balls that were hit 83 MPH in the Major Leagues last year, the league batting average on those balls was .189.
So, as you can see, other than the 3 pitches to McMahon, Grove executed. And, since the Dodgers had Muncy best positioned for an outside pitch, something of which Grove threw, it was just simply “tough luck” that he gave up the double to end his night.
Grove had 2 chances to cut the inning off, and both times, he executed to do just that. The first time the home plate umpire got the 3-2 pitch wrong, and the 2nd time, Muncy just wasn’t positioned in a normal 3rd base position.
It is what it is, and results do matter, but, so does the process and in this scenario, the process was good.
Grove threw great and one of the great aspects of baseball is that it’s a marathon and not a sprint, so, if he keeps throwing like he did last night, the tide will turn and things will even out. As things even out, instead of a guy getting an 83 MPH double, he might hit a 97 MPH line drive that gets caught, because, like I said, over the course of 6 months, things even out.
Become a subscriber to our Dodgers Daily YouTube page and follow us on Twitter @dodger_daily, on Instagram @dodger.daily, or on TikTok @dodgers_daily.
Leave a comment, click the like button, and tell all your friends about Dodgers Daily so we can keep growing and keep providing quality content in the future
