Los Angeles, CA: Dodger lefty starter Tyler Anderson throws with deception. Much like his teammate Clayton Kershaw. He has an unusual delivery where his landing foot comes down and then stops, goes up a few inches and then comes down to complete his delivery. That can throw the hitters focus off for a split second. Keeping them off balance, making their brain lose concentration for that split second could be the difference of hitting the ball square or not.
Anderson only throws 92-93 mph, so he needs that little hiccup in his delivery. In this game the Mets hitters also had trouble adjusting to his nasty sink plus fade change-up. When you pitch six innings and only give up three hits against this 2022 NY Mets powerhouse, you have done something special.
Mets starter Chris Bassitt, 6 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 2 HR, pitched good enough to win but that is not going to happen when your team only scores one run.
After their loss last night to the Dodgers Mets manager Buck Showalter said: “I don’t get into the litmus test. That’s somebody else’s terminology. It’s a competitive situation every night.” He is right.
Buck is a seasoned pro who knows that two losses in June will not determine where you end up in September. Yes the Dodgers are deep and their pitching is good. But the Mets without their two all-stars Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom have themselves in first place in the NL East. They are having a very good year so far.
Now down two games to one in this four game series, they could realistically come away with a split and will have not lost any ground in the standings.
