First things first. When discussing his performance Wednesday night against the Blue Jays, Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel blamed himself and his inability to keep his fastball down against a fastball-feasting Toronto lineup.
“Balls were up in the zone, open roof tonight, ball was flying a little bit,” Hammel said after the Orioles’ 4-1 loss to Toronto at the Rogers Centre. “You put two and two together.”
In his next breath, Hammel proposed a theory well beyond basic math.
“They’re a very potent offense and if you don’t make your pitches down they’re going to get them out,” Hammel said. “They were taking some pretty big hacks on my breaking stuff too, which leads me to believe it was something else. It is what it is. I need to keep the ball down.”
Deserved its own thread. Very interesting.
