With his disastrous start against the Athletics Tuesday in which he allowed three runs on four hits with five walks and eight strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings, you might assume whatever progress Jake Odorizzi had made in his previous two starts, allowing no runs on six hits with four walks and 18 strikeouts in 11 innings, was lost. But that's probably not the case.
As I pointed out after his last start, his success coincided with a change in his arsenal. Specifically, he began throwing his breaking balls 25-30 percent of time, or about twice as often as before. Leading up to Tuesday's start, The Tampa Tribune provided the backstory for the change, noting that pitching coach Jim Hickey and catcher Ryan Hanigan believed Odorizzi had become too predictable and urged him to mix it up.
Hanigan, as the one calling the pitches, helped make it happen, but with him sidelined by a hamstring injury Tuesday, Odorizzi was forced to work with Jose Molina. And his old habits returned. He threw his slider and curveball only 15 percent of the time.
If Hickey and Hanigan figured it out the first time, you can trust them to figure it out again. The turnaround for Odorizzi should be a quick one.