What Did Kyle Hart Do Differently in Start No. 3?

[Randy Holt]

Nothing remedies a clunky start to the year like an outing against the Colorado Rockies.

Kyle Hart's first start back stateside was varying levels of fine. He tossed five innings against Cleveland, allowing a pair of runs and working ar ound a lot of hard contact (57.1% hard-hit rate). Hart's second outing was downright bad, as he failed to make it out of the first inning against the Chicago Cubs in a disastrous outing wrought by poor command (four walks in two-thirds of an inning). Start no. 3, however, could be a sign of some traction for the former KBO pitcher. 

Against the Rox on Saturday night, Hart's line included six innings, one hit, zero walks, and four strikeouts. It was what both Hart and the Padres needed given a quiet night from the offense. And while it's easy to declare that the outing came against one of the league's worst offenses (collective 69 wRC+), that might be an oversimplification. 

In a general sense, the command was much better. Hart's start against the Cubs last weekend included just 39 pitches before he was yanked. Only 18 of those were strikes. He didn't generate a single whiff and couldn't find the zone with any consistency. But on Saturday against Colorado, Hart reined it in to a pretty astonishing extent. He threw 74 pitches this time around, with 49 of them landing for strikes. That's a 66.2% strike rate after just 46.2% last weekend. Even more notable is the fact that his percentage of first strikes skyrocketed; he averaged only 39.8% in his first two starts before going for a 68.4% percent clip on Saturday. 

The broadcast on Saturday noted that Hart's mechanics looked more in sync. Specifically, his frontside coming down more firmly than it had in his last start was attributed as a predominant factor in his ability to locate his pitches. He was a bit more over the top than horizontal as well, allowing him to realize much of the same success that he did in his first start against the Guardians.

Hart's usage might have something to do with the effectiveness as well: 

Hart's sweeper is his best pitch. Full stop. It's the pitch with which he's avoided hard contact to the highest degree. It's the pitch that Hart needs to utilize in order to be effective, given that he's not going to generate a high volume of whiffs to begin with. In deploying the sweeper to the extent he did on Saturday (36%), he generated a called strike and whiff rate (CSW%) of 44.0% against the Rockies. No other pitch was close to that mark. 

With an ability to locate the sweeper, Hart could play his other pitches off it. Against the Cubs last weekend, the sweeper and fastball were used equally, with only the sinker factoring in regularly among his other offerings. While those three were his most frequently thrown pitches again on Saturday, he was also able to mix in the change and slider to more effect. Those two averaged his lowest average exit velocity against this side of the sweeper. 

It'll be interesting to see how that command and pitch mix holds up against an opponent of higher quality. While too simple for an explanation of his success on Saturday, it's still a factor. The good news for Hart is that his next projected start comes next weekend against Houston. The Astros currently carry a team wRC+ of just 84 (23rd), with middle-tier contact quality and almost no power to speak of (.101 ISO as a team). Beyond that, Hart projects to go against Tampa Bay. While both better than Colorado in a handful of ways, neither is among the league's higher-end offensive groups. That should, ideally, allow Hart to settle in further and springboard that command into the summer months.

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