Jeff Locke recently changed his routine between starts and the results immediately improved.
“Things had been a little bit different,” Locke told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We kind of ironed some things out and everything’s been much better since then.”
So what exactly changed?
“By focusing on the direction of his front leg, tweaking the order of his between-starts bullpen sessions and listening to his body, Locke lowered his ERA by more than a run," the paper wrote.
Locke has also altered the way he attacks his bullpens. The starter used to to throw a lot of pitches to the right side of the plate, but pitching coach Ray Searage had him work toward the other side and it seems to be helping.
“Ray knows that everything I do is kind of on that side of the plate,” Locke said. “I think I was having some trouble keeping my fastball straight. I know it doesn't sound like a problem. It wasn’t late life, it was just cutting.”
(h/t Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Photo Credit: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
