Wednesday, September 01, 1999Variety key for Neagle
Finds curve to beat Braves
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati EnquirerVariety was the spice of Denny Neagle's performance Monday against the Atlanta Braves.
Neagle maintained that he felt good on the mound even while going winless in his last three starts and allowing 12 earned runs in 16ô innings in that stretch.
This time, he rediscovered his curveball, which helped him last seven innings — matching his longest outing of the year — as the Reds beat Atlanta 11-3.
“I finally started mixing in some good off-speed breaking pitches in there. That was huge for me,” said Neagle, who allowed three runs and five hits after posting an 0-2 record with a 10.57 ERA in two previous starts against the Braves.
Neagle realized he needed to vary his pattern after Andruw Jones' two-run homer in the fourth trimmed Cincinnati's lead to 4-3. He had been relying too much on his fastball or a fastball-changeup alternation.
“They (the hitters) get locked in,” Neagle said. “Any good hitter is going to think, "I think I'm quick enough to catch up to his fastball, so I'm going to sit back on his changeup, and if he throws a fastball, I'll adjust to it.' But if you throw something that comes down-and-in to right-handers, it gets them to think a little bit more.
“That's the whole idea behind pitching. You want the hitters guessing and not being able to get too comfortable against you.”
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Variety key for Neagle