ST. LOUIS -- Catcher Willson Contreras dialed up a sinker on his PitchCom system, arrange in his regular spot for the 2-2 pitch and had his goal aligned with the purpose of the plate.

However, he by no means might have anticipated what was about to return subsequent.

Not solely did the pitch thrown to Contreras are available in at 101.1 mph, however it had a lot dynamic horizontal break to the left -- a whopping 16 inches, to be precise -- that it fooled each D-Backs hitter Josh Rojas and the veteran Cardinals catcher. Rojas took a feeble swing for strike three, whereas Contreras chased the pitch that ended up 4 inches off the plate along with his mitt. Ultimately, it deflected away, and Contreras needed to scurry after it earlier than throwing to first to finish the strikeout.

“That was a heavy, heavy sinker,” Contreras raved. “I was expecting [sinker], but not with that much movement. If [the pitcher] keeps making adjustments like that, he’s going to be really good for this team.”

The hurler who threw that devastating strikeout pitch -- one which Cardinals supervisor Oli Marmol later known as “nasty” and “legit” -- was none apart from Jordan Hicks, a pitcher whose huge struggles have been one thing of a microcosm of the Cardinals early-season woes. The final time Hicks was on the mound earlier than Tuesday’s dazzling three-strikeout efficiency was a three-run catastrophe in a 10-inning loss to the Pirates. In that outing, Hicks had so little religion in with the ability to land the 100-plus-mph sinker that he threw seven straight sliders to Andrew McCutchen and the veteran predictably hit the ultimate one for a two-run house run that was the distinction within the recreation.

Hicks left that outing with a ballooning 12.71 ERA and eight walks and two house runs allowed in 5 2/3 innings pitched, and it left the Cardinals in fairly the quandary. Because he has 5 years of service time, Hicks might solely be despatched to the Minor Leagues along with his consent. The Cardinals by no means requested Hicks to simply accept a Minor League task, a supply near the negotiations informed MLB.com.

However, persevering with to ship Hicks out to pitch with video games on the road would have been deemed downright reckless. Instead of demoting Hicks -- or satisfying the demand of upset followers to DFA the struggling reliever -- the Cards shifted him into low-leverage spots in hopes of serving to him relocate his command and confidence. After all, pitching coaches can’t educate 103-plus-mph stuff and the Cardinals knew 29 different groups would have anxiously claimed the flamethrower had they designated him for task.

Even although it put a bullpen that hasn’t been at full energy in lots of video games additional in a bind, the Cardinals rolled with the technique of shifting Hicks into low-leverage conditions. Their hope is that an outing just like the one on Tuesday in a loss -- three strikeouts and the 5 quickest pitches of the evening (102.3, 102.1, 101.9, 101.7 and 101.6 mph) -- may also help Hicks get proper once more. He even adopted it up with one other strong two-strikeout, one-walk efficiency in Wednesday’s one-sided win.

“I just felt like I wasn’t sharp, and I wasn’t giving it everything,” Hicks mentioned of his shaky begin to the season. “Not that I wasn’t right here on the day-to-day or not placing in my work, it was simply [consistent] effort degree. I had a couple of conversations with a pair folks and now I’m able to go.

“I’m trying to stay positive and stay away from negativity in all aspects of my life,” added Hicks, who as just lately as a month in the past hit 104.6 mph in a Spring Training recreation. “I have to stick with what I know and get better at my craft. There are going to be ups and downs -- I started on a down this year, so now it’s time to go up.”

The Cardinals had been sensible to disregard the indignant chatter to summarily rid themselves of Hicks, a pitcher far too gifted to ever surrender on. After all, it’s as a lot the job of the workforce as it's on Hicks to search out methods to make the flame-throwing righty efficient once more. One change instituted by the pitching workers this week -- getting Hicks again to pitching from the first-base aspect of the rubber -- has helped him higher find his devastating 100-plus-mph sinker.

“We have to figure out how to get Hicks back,” Marmol mentioned of the younger pitcher, who nonetheless hopes to be an MLB beginning pitcher sometime. “That’s our jobs, that's what we get paid to do. Part of is to evaluate and pick and choose what guys to use, but another part is getting guys to perform better. We take that as our responsibility -- how do we get this guy back to being usable? We spend tons of hours trying to figure that out and we’ll do it with [Hicks].”

Content Source: www.mlb.com