.

There has never been a Seattle Mariner pitcher who threw 82 MPH and was anything other than a bad punch line.  In fact there has only ever been maybe 1-2 American League pitchers who ever (since 2002) did it.  So SSI figgered it can't be done.

Iwakuma's last two starts did a whale of a lot to convince us otherwise.  This is two games in a row in which he locked down the enemy at 81, 82 MPH.  In fact his game logs:

.

.

Notice the 0's, 1's, 2's, and 3's in the Earned Runs column.  Every time but once.  And he's doing this with a most strange toolbox:

.

.

Iwakuma throws these pitches with REAL PRECISION - with him now, the difference is between RIGHT ON the knees vs FIVE INCHES ABOVE the knees.  One will keep him out of trouble; a miss barely into the strike zone and he's liable to give up a mortar shot.  But he can consistently pull off this precision.

The Ultra Felix Pitch Sequences (TM) came hot and heavy on Wednesday.  Two examples, from the first two hitters of the 3rd inning:

.

.

The pitches to Revere:  81 split, 81 split, 79 split, 84 "fastball" at the knees outside.  Line out.

The pitches to Pennington:  78 split, 79 slider, 79 slider line drive single.  You see there isn't tons of margin for error.  But on the other hand Iwakuma can still "hump up" to 88, 89 MPH; he throws 83 MPH because he's flicking darts.

Fact is it's been working.  Mercy sakes alive, his ERA is 90 and headed for better territories.  As is his 16:12 CTL ratio, manifesting the necessary 1 BB per game the last few times out.  Could be he's getting the hang of the 1 BB, 3 K game.  Maybe this is f'r real.

.

GREAT CATCH!

There were a good 3 outs that were directly on the warning track for Hisashi, including a stolen home run.  Don't bother me none.  That's part of the deal-io here.  Next up:  an article on the recent precedents for Love At 82 MPH.

BABVA,

Dr D