The Silver Lining

I hate to say I told you so, but after his strong start against the Orioles last week, I wrote that Ian Kennedy couldn't repeat that success if he continued to rely heavily on his fastball and didn't throw more breaking balls for strikes. On Thursday, Kennedy started the game by throwing thirteen fastballs and just four breaking balls to the first five batters, and none of those breaking balls were in the strike zone. There's one event in baseball where a hitter doesn't have to worry about breaking balls and can wait for a 90mph fastball to hit. It's called the home run derby, and the Orioles proceeded to hold their own as Kevin Millar and Ramon Hernandez knocked back to back homers to give Baltimore a three run lead.

Thankfully, those two home runs seemed to help Kennedy realize that, as he proceeded to throw fifteen breaking balls in his next thirty-one pitches, seven of which seemed to be in the strike zone. By keeping the hitters off balance, he proceeded to cruise through the rest of the second inning, as well as the third, with the only damage coming thanks to errors and passed balls.

Of course in keeping with this season's theme, Kennedy followed this success with an injury, but at least he's given us reason to be optimistic about his return.