Kluber lives off his two-seam fastball and curveball/slider. Those are the two pitches he’s thrown the most this season. Those are the pitches that have helped him strikeout eight or more batters in 12 straight games this year.
Thursday night, in the Indians’ 5-1 win over the Yankees, he changed things a bit. He dusted off his four-seam fastball and rode it to a three-hit complete game win.
“He’s able to make adjustments that I haven’t seen many pitchers, even on the other side, do,” said Gomes, Kluber’s catcher. “Like tonight, he was throwing his four-seamer more than he has before. Everybody talks about his two-seamer and curveball, and he still put guys away with that, but getting ahead with the four-seamer, especially against some of their good lefties, you don’t expect him to do that.”
Kluber, according to Statcast, threw his four-seam fastball 12.5 percent of the time this season going into Thursday’s start. Thursday night he threw it 28.3 percent of the time. Thirty of the 106 pitches Kluber threw were four-seamers.
“He told me, ‘I don’t know if they thought I didn’t have a four-seamer,’ because they were taking a bunch of them,” said Gomes. “It’s one of those things that when something starts working, don’t stop it, just keep going.”
Said Kluber, “Tonight maybe after the first time through the order, it just seemed like it was getting up on them a little bit. I’m not sure if they were ready for the two-seamer or just had some good life on it tonight. You could kind of tell that after the first time through the order it was getting on them a little quicker than they thought.”
Kluber threw 68 percent of his 106 pitches for strikes. In 12 starts since coming off the disabled list, Kluber has thrown fewer than 66 percent strikes in just one start. The major-league average for a starting pitcher is 63 percent strikes.
Thursday night the Indians took a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to three New York errors.. Kluber protected the early lead as he threw a three-hitter for his third complete game of the season.
“Honestly, from the first pitch you always think he’s going to go deep into the game,” said Gomes. “Sometimes you’ll see some of his pitches start to back up, but he’s able to come up with another pitch and make it the best pitch of his day.
“He knows how to pitch with a lead. Whenever we get a lead, he pounds the zone and goes right after it. It just helps him that his pound-the-zone pitches are pretty nasty.”
Gomes greets every pitcher he catches after each inning and walks back to the dugout with him. They talk strategy between innings, but during the game it’s a different story.
“I usually try to take care of that part,” said Gomes, when asked about who does the talking on the field. “I don’t want him thinking out there.”
Thinking is one thing. Pitching is another.
Kluber is 6-1 with a 1.77 ERA (17 earned runs in 86 1/3 innings) since being activated on June 1. He’s struck out 131, walked 15 and allowed 79 hits. He is averaging 13.7 strikeouts per nine innings and 1.6 walks per nine innings.
Gomes, especially, knows you don’t get in the way of that. You just let it happen.
RESULTS
San Francisco 11 Oakland 2
LA Angels 5 Philadelphia 4
Kansas City 6 Seattle 4
Tampa Bay 5 Houston 3
Texas 4 Minnesota 1
LA Dodgers 7 Atlanta 4
Boston 9 Chicago White Sox 5
Cleveland 5 NY Yankees 1
Pittsburgh 6 Cincinnati 0
Detroit 7 Baltimore 5
Colorado 5 NY Mets 4
Arizona 10 Chicago Cubs 8
Milwaukee 2 St. Louis 1