Jacob Barnes had a huge outing in yesterday’s win. Barnes came in with 2 on and nobody out in the sixth after Stroman departed. Barnes, struck out Isan Diaz and Chad Wallach before getting J.J. Bleday to pop out to J.D. Davis. So let’s break down every at bat of Barnes his outing:

The strikeout to Diaz started with 2 cutters, one way below the zone and one just under the zone for a swinging strike. The swinging strike got 30 inches of vertical movement, the best in his outing. It was also the slowest pitch of his outing at 87 MPH on his cutter. Barnes threw it down and in to the lefty hitter as one of the nastiest pitch in his outing. Although his vertical movement is below average, it’s good to pair with his 4 seamer that doesn’t get many vertical movement. The cutters look like fastballs, but the movement get hitters to swing above it.

After the swinging strike, he got a called strike with the 4 seam fastball. He got 2695RPM on that pitch, his highest spin rate of his outing. It shows Barnes started sharp in a spot he needed to start sharp.

After two balls down and in and a foul, Barnes got the swinging strike on another nasty cutter down and in. That cutter had 28 inches of vertical break, getting under the bat. Worth noting is that Barnes really owned the inside corner in the Diaz at bat, as showed on the graphic below.

Barnes went on to face the right handed hitting Wallach. After getting ahead with a 4 seam fastball, he tried to get Wallach to chase down and away. After Wallach laid off both the cutters with higher velo and less vertical break, Barnes came back with a 95 mph fastball down and in. Little bit more plate, but Wallach took it. He got Wallach swinging with a cutter little more up and away. Probably not the spot that Barnes wanted, but the sequence made Wallach swing at it.

2 down and one to go in a big spot. Barnes faced the lefty Bleday, so back to down and in with the first cutter. The young Bleday laid off, when Barnes tried to go up with the fastball. It missed but Barnes came back with three pitches inside on the hands of Bleday. After three foul balls, Barnes got him to pop out on a 95.4 mph fastball in on the hands. More in than the other three pitches. Only thing Bleday could do was a weak pop up to the third base side. Job done by Barnes.

Worth noting is that Barnes spin rate on his 4 seamer is up this spring. He is averaging 2539 RPM on his fastball this spring. A 162 RPM increase since last year (2377RPM). After a tough first outing, Barnes has been unscored upon over his last 4 innings, allowing just 2 hits, while striking out 6. (Mathew Brownstein)

With this outing, Barnes took a huge step in making the pen. Barnes is out of options, which makes his case even stronger. These type of outings does help! I personally really like Barnes and his strikeout stuff. As shown in his recent outing.

Photo by: Tim Britton Twitter