Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo is doing one thing no different starter has performed in MLB historical past

Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on each the well timed and timeless parts of the sport.

The Seattle Mariners staggered dwelling late Wednesday after a four-city journey that upended their identification. A workforce constructed on dynamic beginning pitching misplaced seven of its final eight video games by means of Baltimore, Queens, Williamsport, Pa., and Philadelphia, with an MLB-worst 7.75 rotation ERA in that stretch.

On Friday, although, the Mariners will probably be dwelling. And for a workforce instantly determined for dependable begins, Bryan Woo is as near computerized as any pitcher on the planet.

“I’m by no means attempting to idiot round,” Woo stated this week, on the bench earlier than a recreation in Philadelphia. “I’m by no means attempting to identify corners and finesse. I’m going proper after you. And I really feel like if I do this constantly, then it breeds effectivity, and effectivity will get me deeper into video games.”

No pitcher in a decade has been as environment friendly as Woo from the beginning of a season into late August. He has lasted not less than six innings in every of his first 24 begins, changing into the primary starter to try this since Zack Greinke in 2015.

Woo’s precision, although, makes him a definite case in MLB historical past. In response to the Mariners, he’s the primary pitcher ever to open a season with 24 consecutive begins of not less than six innings and not more than two walks.

Final week’s bludgeoning apart, the Mariners have largely succeeded with a pitching philosophy like this: “Hitting is difficult, and your stuff is sweet, so throw strikes.” No American League workforce will get extra innings from its starters than Seattle, and Woo embodies the method.

“It’s good being on the market within the bullpen realizing that the primary 5, six innings, you’re simply in a position to kinda hang around,” reliever Gabe Speier stated. “I imply, yeah, each every so often there’ll be a blow-up recreation the place guys begin smacking balls, for certain. However attacking goes to work, like, 95 % of the time. If you happen to persist with that mentality all through the entire 12 months, I believe you’re going to have 12 months.”

Woo is 10-7 with a 3.02 ERA, hanging out 153 and strolling 28 throughout 152 innings. In response to Sports activities Information Options, he throws fastballs (four-seamers or sinkers) 72.4 % of the time, essentially the most of any certified pitcher in MLB.

To Woo, it’s not sophisticated. No matter catcher Cal Raleigh or Mitch Garver places down, he’ll throw. He would possibly shake off a suggestion every now and then, however he trusts their preparation and instincts — and trusting these round him has helped make Woo an All-Star.

Woo, 25, by no means noticed himself as a pitcher within the first place. He wished to be a shortstop and volunteered to pitch when his highschool workforce wanted an arm. In three seasons at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he had a 6.36 ERA, permitting 11.6 hits and 4 walks per 9 innings. When the draft got here round after his junior 12 months, Woo was recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure.

“I used to be simply sort of counting on if a scout favored me or not,” Woo stated. “It wasn’t actually like I used to be gonna have any numbers to indicate for it.”

That scout was Trent Clean, now the Mariners’ director of pitching technique. Yearly, Clean immerses himself in movies of draft prospects, finding out the way in which their our bodies transfer. From that, he identifies pitchers who can enhance and thrive beneath Seattle’s steerage.

Clean didn’t scout Woo in individual, and he didn’t must. He noticed sufficient within the arm motion and vary of movement of an injured, ineffective pitcher to push for the Mariners to take him.

“Trent’s interpretation, and I’ll translate it roughly this manner, was: ‘By way of the lens I’m trying by means of, I might take him (first total) within the draft — I simply suppose there’s a lot potential to assist him develop,’” president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto stated. “So we labored one thing out along with his agent; we drafted him within the sixth spherical, we overpaid him to induce him to signal fairly than going again to high school or a switch portal. And he trusted us.”

Woo signed for $318,200 because the 174th decide within the 2021 draft — and to date, he has simply outperformed the 15 pitchers taken within the first spherical. The way in which he throws his fastballs distinguishes Woo from the remaining.

“The uphill aircraft — and, actually, his capacity to maneuver like that with an uphill aircraft — is exclusive,” Clean stated. “He’s in a position to truly create the add level by getting down the mound and never compensating along with his physique to get there. That’s the distinctive piece of it. So you continue to see that clear supply, however he’s by some means releasing it from a a lot decrease peak than regular.”

Opponents have hit simply .147 off Woo’s four-seamer this season. He’s susceptible to dwelling runs as a result of he emphasizes excessive fastballs, however as a rule, that model helps him dominate.

“He locates it extraordinarily properly on the high a part of the zone, so he’s elite at doing that one factor,” Clean stated. “And you then add within the velo element, and he’s 95-plus more often than not. A man (like that) pitching on the high of the zone, he’s going to get quantity of whiff.

“Now, the additional whiff that he will get, that’s the half we don’t perceive totally. In order that’s the misleading piece. And perhaps it’s as a result of he’s received a two-seamer that works in the other way. It’s exhausting to elucidate, however hitters really feel it, and we’ve seen it play out time and again.”

For Woo, the final element was convincing himself to be the kind of pitcher he’s turn into. Since Raleigh challenged him final summer season to discover a higher routine and last more in video games, Woo has embraced the persona utterly.

Beginning pitching might by no means return to the 300- and even 250-inning benchmarks of the previous. However for the way the job has developed, going six or seven innings each begin is a exceptional achievement.

“I don’t suppose it’s talked about sufficient now with pitching — going deep into video games and innings,” Woo stated. “Loads of it’s nearly strikeouts and velo and all that stuff. Being a workhorse is one thing that’s exhausting to quantify past innings, however I believe the workforce feels it, the employees feels it, the coaches, the bullpen. It’s one thing that I take satisfaction in.”

A Corridor of Fame title lives on

In response to the US Social Safety Administration, the title Ryan was the eleventh hottest for boys born in 1991. That summer season, in St. Louis, Ryne Stanek’s mother and father determined to alter the spelling to honor Ryne Sandberg, the Nationwide League’s beginning second baseman within the All-Star Recreation that month.

“They have been going to call me ‘Ryan’ regardless, however wished to spell it like that,” stated Stanek, a veteran Mets reliever. “My dad simply revered the way in which he performed and favored him as a participant — clearly didn’t just like the Cubs, however favored him.”

It takes a robust popularity for a Cardinals fan to call his son after a Cubs celebrity. However that was the enchantment of Sandberg, the Corridor of Famer who died final month, at age 65, from metastatic prostate most cancers. Sandberg’s nephew, Jared Sandberg, was Stanek’s supervisor with the Triple-A Durham Bulls. However he by no means had the prospect to satisfy his namesake.

“All you heard about him was nothing however nice issues,” Stanek stated. “Simply very a lot what folks would think about now to be an old-school or a purist mindset is what I gathered: You play exhausting, you respect the sport, you do the proper issues.”

Solely 5 gamers named Ryne have ever reached the majors: Ryne Duren, a near-sighted ’50s aid ace whose given title was Rinold; Sandberg (who was named after Duren); and three latest pitchers — Stanek, Ryne Nelson of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Ryne Harper, who pitched for Minnesota and Washington from 2019 to 2021.

“It’s cool to have one thing that you simply’re nearly hooked up to since beginning,” Stanek stated. “It looks like future, somewhat bit.”

Nelson — who was additionally named for Sandberg as a twist on the title Ryan — is having a stable 12 months for Arizona (6-3, 3.58 ERA in 113 innings), and Stanek has pitched in two World Sequence throughout a workmanlike nine-year profession.

However any future Rynes, Stanek stated, will most likely must be named for Sandberg.

“I’ll exit on a limb,” he stated. “No person’s most likely naming their youngsters after me and Ryne Nelson.”

Gimme 5

Life classes from Clint Hurdle

The Colorado Rockies have been the primary workforce to clinch a shedding file for 2025, naturally, however they’ve quietly had a decent second half. After profitable simply two collection earlier than the All-Star break, they gained 4 of their first 9 collection after it. That gained’t elevate the Rockies out of final place, however the fashionable benchmarks for futility — the 1962 Mets (.250 profitable proportion) and 2024 White Sox (121 losses) — appear secure.

Clint Hurdle, the interim bench coach who managed the Rockies to their solely World Sequence look in 2007, is a reminder of higher occasions. He’s additionally a brand new creator, with “Hurdle-isms: Wit and Knowledge from a Lifetime in Baseball” revealed in February.

In an interview earlier than a Rockies recreation earlier this season, Hurdle — who sends a “each day encouragement” e-mail to scores of mates across the recreation — shared 5 classes to stay by.

There’s two sorts of individuals in life and in sport — these which might be humble and people which might be about to be. “We’ve been humbled. However you need to have braveness. By way of the humility, you possibly can construct braveness. And we’re studying from that place of humility, which I believe can give you a greater basis transferring ahead.”

Bathe properly on the finish of the evening. “Actually self-evaluate what went proper, what didn’t go proper, however then go and wash all of it off. Since you’re going someplace — whether or not it’s (with) your spouse and youngsters, whether or not it’s (with) family and friends — and the following day is a brand new alternative. You’ve received to indicate up contemporary for that new alternative.”

We’re employed to do the work now. “We’re not promised to get to sit down by the pool and sip lemonade on the finish of the day. I’m right here to do the work now. I don’t know what subsequent 12 months’s going to carry, however I’m not targeted on subsequent 12 months. I’m going to be one of the best model of myself, to educate, to steer, to do what’s requested of me whereas I’m right here. And by modeling that instance, hopefully that rubs off on the gamers. That’s their duty as properly.”

Life’s not honest — the one factor honest in life’s a ball hit between first and third. “And the factor that makes it honest is that it’s not honest for everyone. The way you react and the way you adapt to what’s not honest speaks to your integrity and your character.”

Have a white-belt mentality and by no means cease studying. “The white-belt mentality comes from karate. I used to be the supervisor of the Rockies and my son wished nothing to do with baseball. So he begins with karate. He was only a newbie, he was 9. He goes, ‘Dad, I received the white belt. It’s one of the best belt — you realize why?’ I stated, ‘No.’ He stated, ‘As a result of it means I get to be taught every thing about this.’ In order that white-belt mentality actually helps.”

Off the Grid

Bob “Hurricane” Hazle — Braves/.300 season

For the .300 season class on the Immaculate Grid, I typically consider gamers who hit very properly in partial obligation — a man who singled in his solely at-bat, like Jeff Banister in 1991, or a free agent-to-be who surged after a commerce, like Mark Teixeira with the Angels in 2008.

So, on Monday, when the Grid known as for a Braves participant who hit .300, Bob “Hurricane” Hazle was the decide. (And never simply because it’s hurricane season.) Referred to as as much as the Milwaukee Braves in late July 1957, Hazle was an immediate sensation.

A month after his promotion, Hazle was by some means hitting .507, with 34 hits in 67 at-bats. He slammed 5 homers and had an otherworldly 1.407 OPS.

“It doesn’t appear potential that anybody can sustain such a tempo,” teammate Crimson Schoendienst informed The New York Instances. “However proper now the child is Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams all wrapped in a single.”

The magic lasted proper by means of the World Sequence. Hazle hit .403 within the common season (54 for 134), and in Recreation 7 of the World Sequence, at Yankee Stadium, his single off Don Larsen sparked a four-run rally and despatched the Braves to a 5-0 victory. It was their solely championship between 1914 in Boston and 1995 in Atlanta.

Hazle — who received his nickname from the precise Hurricane Hazel, which had struck his native South Carolina three years earlier — light as shortly as he arrived. In a 1958 season disrupted by two beanballs, he batted simply .211 with the Braves and Detroit Tigers. He retired from the minors two years later, washed up at 29.

Thirty years after Hazle’s indelible summer season, author David Lamb discovered him in South Carolina, working as a touring whiskey salesman. The Braves had given Hazle a skimpy bonus for his 1957 heroics — simply $1,000 — and he left the game bitter. However whereas Hazle may by no means clarify his second of glory, he at all times treasured it.

“I wasn’t doing something totally different; it was simply that every thing was working for me,” Hazle informed Lamb, within the Los Angeles Instances. “I didn’t need to get up. Gosh, that was life.”

Basic clip

Bob Uecker and the “Mr. Belvedere” All-Stars, 1989

The Milwaukee Brewers will have a good time the lifetime of Bob Uecker on Sunday, after they host the San Francisco Giants at American Household Subject. Among the many attendees will probably be Uecker’s co-stars from “Mr. Belvedere,” the ABC sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1990.

The primary episode of the ultimate season, which ran on Sept. 16, 1989, was a tribute to Uecker’s clout. Solely essentially the most beloved .200 hitter may have assembled such a staggering visitor listing: Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays… and Robert Goulet (he owned the sphere, you see).

These eight, plus Uecker, play a sandlot recreation towards a bunch of youngsters. They’re not particularly spry, and the jokes are fairly painful. However for those who thought “The Simpsons” had one of the best single-episode assortment of baseball expertise in 1992’s celebrated “Homer At The Bat” — you’re approach off.

Going by Wins Above Alternative — even with nothing from Goulet and a damaging determine from Uecker — it’s a rout. Right here’s how the “Belvedere Bulldogs” examine with the Springfield Nuclear Energy Plant ringers. (In protection of S.N.P.P. scout Waylon Smithers, his boss’ high selections have been all lifeless.)

“LOL,” texted Sax, when requested how Springfield would fare towards the Belvedere bunch. “I believe we’d lose!”

(High photograph of Bryan Woo: Al Bello/Getty Pictures)