In the summer of 2015, Lucas Giolito threw two scoreless innings at the Futures Game in Cincinnati. His fastball ranged from 96-99 mph that day. The leverage created by his 6-foot-6 frame made the pitch all the more troublesome. It was his anchor, so much so that whenever future teammate Bryce Harper spoke about Giolito, he joked the 22 year old threw pitches “a billion” mph.
That was enough to put Giolito on the major league side of spring training for the first time this season. He had a good time sharing his baking creations on social media. He tried to be attentive, but also out of the way. As intriguing as he may be, the Washington Nationals planned to send their top prospect back to the minor leagues to start the season. Giolito knew it.
When he debuted in the majors June 28, rain capsized what appeared to be an eventful night. Giolito pitched four innings, allowed a hit, no one scored. His next outing was worse: 3 ⅔ innings, seven hits, four earned runs. Then just 3⅓ innings before he was removed from a spot start July 24. Back to the minors he went.
Sunday wasn’t much better. In another spot start, Giolito made it to through five innings for the first time, but was only moderately effective in the Nationals’ 5-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies. His pitching line of five innings, four earned runs, six hits, two walks and two strikeouts counts as incremental progress and hardly inspirational.
The fastball that sizzled last summer has lost some of its zip, which makes pitching in the major leagues complicated. Having that issue against the Rockies is even more troubling since piling on from the Rockies is swift and merciless. They lead the National League in runs scored, average and OPS. A portion of that, as always, is attributable to their thin-air blessed home park. Though, they are also fifth in the National League in runs scored on the road.
Colorado presented a harrowing lineup filled with left-handed hitters Sunday, when six of their first eight hitters were left-handed. The two right-handers were DJ LeMahieu, who came into the game leading the league in batting average, and Nolan Arenado, an MVP candidate. No matter how hard Giolito was throwing, effectively recording outs against the Rockies would be a chore.
Giolito followed his fastball-heavy pitching pattern against the Rockies’ mighty order. Coming into the game, Giolito used his fastball 75.1 percent time in his first three major league outings. It averaged 93.8 mph, according to the Web site Fangraphs, well down from his Futures Game appearance. According to the radar gun in Nationals Park, Giolito threw one 94-mph fastball against Colorado. Most were 93 mph. Others were slower.
“I can pitch at 93 if I’m hitting my spots and mixing up [pitches] well,” Giolito said. “I think I left way too many fastballs up over the middle of the plate. Those are the ones that got hit pretty hard. The velocity I don’t think is a huge deal as long as I am pitching the way I should be pitching.”
Fastball reliance of that level is a common tactic for the young and unpolished. Max Scherzer threw his fastball 72.5 percent of the time his rookie season. That’s down to 56 percent this season. Seattle Mariners starter Felix Hernandez used his fastball 60.1 percent of the time and threw it 95.8 mph his rookie season. A decade later, he uses it 45.7 percent of the time.
Both Scherzer and Hernandez were using a more dynamic fastball than Giolito has shown in the majors. Though they needed years to polish their backup pitches, their early fastball was a useful foundation.
Not surprisingly, both home runs Giolito allowed Sunday were on fastballs. If one pitch is used more than 70 percent of the time, most results, good and bad, will be based on it. However, the Rockies expected the fastball from the Futures Game. They did not see it.
“The reports you read about him say he throws about 95, 97,” Arenado said. “Those are the reports we saw and on video. It wasn’t that. It doesn’t matter. His length, the ball kind of gets on you, has a little jump to it. He’s so tall, so big. It’s not a comfortable at-bat.”
It took Giolito eight batters to have someone swing and miss at one of his pitches Sunday. Of his 100 pitches, 71 were fastballs. The Rockies swung and missed against them once.
The mediocre result against the Rockies ran counter to the solid run Giolito was on for Triple-A Syracuse before his start. His ERA was down to 2.76, and he was striking out more than a batter per inning in six starts. Giolito had tweaked his delivery before his July 24 start for the Nationals to reduce the amount of pre-pitch movement on the mound. The results in Triple A seemed to indicate the changes worked. Then Sunday’s start, pock-marked with two homers, other loud outs, and only two efficient innings out of five pitched, arrived.
“I was throwing all three pitches for strikes and I was putting guys away a lot more efficiently than I did [Sunday],” said Giolito of his work in the minor leagues. “A lot of 0-2, 1-2 counts that turn into 3-2, 2-2 [Sunday]; kind of let some at-bats get away from me when I was in the driver’s seat and I could have made something happen.”
So far in the majors, he’s been unable to do just that.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.