Rich Harden vs. Graham Taylor by Inning

I didn't see an of Friday's game, but it sounded ugly for Harden. Looked ugly in PITCHf/x, too. Thank you Ryan Theriot and congratulations David Patton (more and Mr. Rule 5 later).

The Cubs stood around and watched a lot of strikes from Marlins rookie Graham Taylor. It cost them as the game progressed, as Taylor started throwing more strikes.

Meanwhile, Florida stopped swinging at balls and Harden stopped throwing them change-ups in the fourth inning. An inning he didn't finish.

Pitch Selections by Inning

first	last	inning	#	Change	Fastball
Rich	Harden	1	15	5	10
Rich	Harden	2	25	8	17
Rich	Harden	3	17	5	12
Rich	Harden	4	29	1	28

first	last	inning	#	Change	Sinker	Fastball	Slider
Graham	Taylor	1	12	5	6	1	0
Graham	Taylor	2	27	4	21	0	2
Graham	Taylor	3	10	6	3	0	1
Graham	Taylor	4	23	4	16	0	3
Graham	Taylor	5	16	3	10	1	2

Strikes and Swings



Taylor's In Wide Zone (IWZ; 2 ft. plate, hitter's own top/bottom) happens to match his Swing rate for three innings (the joy of small samples). Amazingly, as the strikes starting arriving, the bats stopped swinging.

The Marlins really found their hitting eye as the game progressed. They stopped chasing pitches out of the zone, although they did take too many strikes in the third inning. They watched and let Harden go wild in the fourth, and got him out of the game. Not like it did Florida any good, though.

Here's a better look at Harden's wildness. His IWZ rate doesn't tell the story.



You can see he basically lost it in the fourth. The drift started in the third, or so it appears.

Same thing for Taylor (click all these images for larger versions, btw), opposite direction, as he improved he really improved.



I guess Taylor may have good command after all.