In a day an age of the young power thrower, it’s refreshing to know there will always be a place for a guy who simply pitches, who masters the art of using his pitching arsenal to keep hitters off balance and get batters out.
Wednesday night at NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton that was exactly the case for Greg Peavey, a B-Met starter who turned in a quality start as Binghamton edged Altoona, 5-3.
Peavey turned in a workman like performance, with seven innings of work, allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out eight and walking only one. Peavey’s poise and location were excellent throughout his outing as he picked up his third win of the season against one loss. The B-Met righthander threw 96 pitches, 68 of them for strikes. Here’s his strike breakdown on the night.
Called strikes 20/29%
Missed strikes 16/24%
Fouled strikes 15/22%
Strikes in Play 17/25%
That’s a 71 percent strike ratio. Attacking batters consistently throughout the night, Peavey stayed ahead of hitters throwing first pitch strikes to 21 of the 27 batters he faced (78%). Peavey was also ahead in the count after three pitches to 19 of 21 batters (90.5%)
And, Peavey threw exactly 50 percent of his pitches as off-speed selections; 33 sliders and 15 change-ups matching his 48 fastballs. Peavey had remarkable command of his change-up using the pitch 15 times and finding the strike zone every time but once. Off the 48 fastballs Peavey threw, 33 were strikes.
Trailing 2-0, Binghamton got one run back in the fourth inning. Matt Reynolds led off with a double, pilfered his first base of the season by stealing third and scored on Kevin Plawecki’s sacrifice fly.
Three B-Met runs the following inning put the home team on top. Cory Vaughn led off with a single and later scored when Kyle Johnson singled. The B-Mets were aided in the inning by two Altoona errors, both committed by their shortstop Alen Hanson. Matt Clark had an RBI double in the frame.
Johnson singled home Wilfredo Tovar, who had walked to open the seventh, for the B-Mets final run of the night.
In the end it was a well played game led by starter Peavey who earned his third win in a row.
(Photo Courtesy of B-Mets)
