With the playoffs approaching and both pitchers unable to trust their sliders, Red Sox pitching coach Dana LeVangie, Bannister says, made a bold decision: “Let’s just completely eliminate the slider, and let’s go to [the] curveball.” Although both pitchers’ ideal sliders were better than their ideal curves, they couldn’t execute the sliders, and they could execute the curves. Kelly threw his last slider of the season on September 19. Hembree threw his on September 29. The chart shows how Kelly (solid lines) and Hembree (dotted lines) saw their slider whiff rates sink month by month through
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