Royals’ Duffy continues to work through ups and downs as he tries to reinvent himself
Royals manager Ned Yost lauded Danny Duffy’s performance on Wednesday night as possibly his best start of the season.
When asked about the slider that got hit out of the park, a trend this season for Duffy, Yost said in a tone of resignation, “It wasn’t that bad a pitch, wasn’t that bad a pitch.”
Duffy has talked about his frustration with the inconsistent feel for his slider after each of his two most recent starts. By his count, his last six home runs have been given up on his slider.
A veteran of eight previous big-league seasons, Duffy’s slider is a new tool that’s not quite a comfortable fit in his trusty and broken-in tool belt.
Duffy spoke in spring training about making changes to his slider because he and pitching coach Cal Eldred wanted him to make the curveball a weapon again. Duffy had gotten away from throwing his curveball in the wake of Tommy John surgery, and he’d gone more to the slider.
In an effort to incorporate both effectively this season, Duffy changed the way he’s throwing his slider going into spring training.
Of course, that process got set back when the Royals shut down his throwing during spring training due to shoulder soreness. He started the season on the Injured List and built up in extended spring before going on a minor-league rehab assignment.
“I started working on it when I started throwing again in spring training after the boys broke camp,” Duffy said. “I’m just trying to stay behind it a little bit longer and make it come out of fastball plane. It’s been really effective for me when I’ve located it.”
The idea behind the changes that were made was to add more horizontal cut action to the slider as opposed to depth. With his curveball playing a bigger role in his pitch arsenal, the horizontal movement plays off of the downward break of his curveball.
“It’s a new pitch, and it’s a new way of throwing it,” Duffy said. “That means that it’s going to get better. It’s going to get more efficient. I took it directly into the show. So I’m going to keep improving upon it and keep working as hard as I can to do that.”
Grab a bat: The Royals will play their second road interleague series of the season when they face the Nationals starting on Friday in Washington, D.C. Which means the Royals will lose the designated hitter, and pitchers will bat. The three pitchers scheduled to pitch in Washington are Brad Keller, Glenn Sparkman and Jakob Junis.
The Royals’ only previous interleague series on the road this season came in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 22. They hosted the Philadelphia Phillies at Kauffman Stadium May 10-12.
Timing is everything: The Royals’ loss Wednesday night marked the fourth time this season they’ve lost a game despite not allowing a hit with runners in scoring position. The Indians were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
