As the Blue Jays have struggled to keep their heads above water through the first quarter of this season, a player nobody saw coming has been providing some desperately needed help.
Rookie Mason Fluharty went into Wednesday’s game with a 2.16 ERA out of the bullpen. He had made 16 appearances and, since being hung with a tough blown save in his major-league debut, had picked up three wins and two holds and allowed just nine baserunners in 16 2/3 innings.
“He’s really answered the call and been a pleasant surprise for us,” pitching coach Pete Walker said in a conversation that can be heard on Thursday’s new episode of ”Deep Left Field,” the Star’s baseball podcast. “He really has been outstanding for us, and someone we’re going to be counting on to pitch big innings and high-leverage innings the rest of the way.”
The 23-year-old didn’t make the team out of spring training, despite a terrific spring in which he allowed just five hits and one walk in seven innings, with 11 strikeouts, but he was called up after Richard Lovelady blew up in relief of the injured Max Scherzer in the third game of the season.
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The exclamation point on Fluharty’s terrific start to his career was a near-perfect game out of the bullpen; he retired 21 consecutive hitters before former Jay Danny Jansen took him deep in Tuesday’s wild 11-9 loss to Tampa Bay. Jansen was the first right-handed hitter to get a hit off Fluharty. Righties had been 0-for-28 against him to that point.
“I wasn’t really aware of it,” Fluharty said in a “Deep Left Field” conversation, “I didn’t know … that I was on that big of a heater. It sucks that it came to an end but it’s baseball — it always comes to an end.”
Before Jansen took him deep, the last hitter who had gotten to Fluharty was the Yankees’ Cody Bellinger, who hit a bloop double to shallow right-centre and eventually came around to score the go-ahead run in a 4-2 Jays win in The Bronx on April 25. That was Fluharty’s first major-league win.
It was during that series that the Delaware native sought out Jays closer Jeff Hoffman.
“I (told him) I’ve been walking guys and I don’t know why,” Fluharty said. “I know it’s not physical. It’s mental, like trying to go out there and not lose the ball game for the team. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect, and when you try to pitch perfect it usually doesn’t go well.”
What’s curious is that despite impressive metrics, the Jays only recently started giving Barger
Hoffman, a 10-year veteran, was quick to offer advice.
“I told him that that’ll all go away if you just start focusing on the handedness of the batter and knowing what your plan is against that,” Hoffman said. “Because it’s really easy to look up and you see Aaron Judge or (Rafael) Devers or whoever and it’s like, ‘Oh man, this guy could leave the yard,’ when the reality is that everybody can do that. It’s not necessarily the name on the back, it’s knowing what your plan is against both sides and pounding the zone.”
Seeing opposing batters as nothing more than a right-handed or left-handed hitter has worked wonders for Fluharty.
“At the end of the day, you’re not going to change who you are to face Aaron Judge, you’re not going to change who you are to face Cody Bellinger,” the young southpaw said. “Understanding that, realizing that, really helped me. I don’t really think when I’m out there anymore, I just go out there and attack.”
What helps the attack a great deal is what Fluharty refers to as his “unicorn” pitch.
“They call it a cutter, but he calls it a fastball,” catcher Tyler Heineman said. “It has late cut and it moves a lot. He’s able to use it to both sides of the plate, which is really cool. Back towards the righties and kind of get it up and in on the hands.”
Fluharty developed the pitch at Liberty College, playing with plyo balls. In trying to clean up his mechanics, he began working with the weighted balls and found his hand naturally wrapped around them. When he switched to a regular baseball, it turned his four-seam fastball into a cutter that, he says, “moves an insane amount.”
According to Statcast, Fluharty gets 3.7 inches of horizontal break to the glove side on his cutter. The next best on the Jays is Chris Bassitt, at 0.8. Fluharty can tie up right-handed hitters inside with it, but it’s also a weapon on the other side of the plate.
Sato said she was moved by the reception from fans and the community alike as she became the
“A lot of times, I get ‘steal strikes.’ I get it on the outside corner,” he said. “It’s like a backdoor slider and (hitters) don’t think it’s coming back but then it does and it’s right there. It’s just opened up the plate a lot for me.”
It’s also opened up a new bullpen weapon the Jays didn’t know they had.
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