Chris Tillman‘s tweaked arsenal of pitches has him hurling as good as, or better than, ever early in 2016. Can he keep it going against Detroit? Click play or read below for more.
Chris Tillman takes the mound tonight for the Orioles against the Detroit Tigers and will look to win his fifth game of the season and continue his huge bounce back season. The right-hander has a 3.05 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP, but more impressive is his 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings which ranks in the top 25 in all of baseball and is ahead of :cough: Jake Arrieta.
The biggest difference for Tillman in 2016 is he has added a slider/cutter to his arsenal which has made him rely less on the fastball. Tillman now has four pitches he can throw for strikes and after relying on his fastball 60 percent of the time throughout his career, he is using the fastball only 53 percent of the time this season.
It has also helped that his fastball velocity is up this season as he is averaging 92 MPH which is about a half a mile better than 2015 and almost a full two miles per hour better than 2014 when he was very effective.
The early season numbers continue to look impressive for Tillman as he has held right-handers to a .180 batting average and has only allowed one home run this season.
The bottom line is, Tillman is pitching at an elite level and for the O’s to continue to play at a high level they will need Tillman to continue this streak. We have seen Tillman pitch very well in 2013 and 2014, but what he has shown this season is even better than the guy that was effective in those seasons.
With Kevin Gausman showing signs of becoming the pitcher many thought he would be, this team could finally have two top of the rotation guys to compete not only for a playoff berth, but possible deep run into the postseason.
