During Spring Training there were instances where Rich Hill’s curveball was in midseason form, and other instances where he struggled to have much of a feel for his devastating pitch. Hill and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts both downplayed the inconsistency.
After all, struggling through the spring was nothing new for Hill. But as the regular season rolled around he was presented with a different — albeit familiar — challenge. The chronic blister on the middle finger of Hill’s throwing hand has twice forced him to the disabled list this year.
As a result, the 37-year-old has failed to establish any sort of rhythm or momentum. That was particularly evident last week when Hill issued a career-high seven walks against the St. Louis Cardinals. He pitched just four innings.
Hill had a shot at redemption on Monday, to which he answered the bell. Following the outing, the veteran left-hander pointed to mechanical changes made between his two starts as being key, per Scott Chasen and Joe Harris of MLB.com:
“We made some adjustments this week, mechanical adjustments, and proved to be successful and feel much more comfortable where I’m at now. Getting my hand out of my glove, getting timing down, and all that stuff was huge. You could see it today, it was much more crisp and clean, and the ball was coming out much more efficiently.”
Hill scattered two hits and allowed just one run at Busch Stadium. He retired the first nine batters faced, including four by strike out. The Cardinals’ first baserunner came on a Tammy Pham walk with one out in the fourth inning.
Their first hit was a soft Aledmys Diaz single to lead off the fifth. That was the lone inning Hill found himself in any sort of trouble. He walked Mike Leake to put runners at the corners with two outs. A curveball to Dexter Fowler was innocently popped up.
The Dodgers maintained their two-run lead at the time and went on for a 5-1 victory. Hill matched a season high with five innings of work and set a season high with 86 pitches. He improved to 2-2 with 4.09 ERA in five starts.
