As a hitter, it's all about picking your spots.
That becomes even more important when you're going up against one of baseball's best pitchers with one of baseball's best pitches. You're not trying to beat Yu Darvish with his slider. You're not trying to beat Cole Hamels with his changeup. And you shouldn't try to beat Adam Wainwright with his curveball.
Using the weighted pitch type values at FanGraphs, Wainwright's curveball was the second-most valuable curveball in baseball behind only the Indians' Corey Kluber this year, at 21 runs above average.
Wainwright's curve is of the 12-6 variety and has some of the most extreme break of any curveball in the MLB, with nine inches of vertical drop.
But why is it so effective? Because hitters can't lay off it. Of all starting pitchers who threw at least 500 curveballs this season, Wainwright's had the highest swing rate, at 49 percent.
Coming into the game, I was interested to see whether Giants hitters would be able to lay off Wainwright's breaking ball.
Here's Buster Posey laying off a Wainwright curveball out of the zone in the first inning:
(Click here if you can't see the GIF.)
But here's Brandon Crawford, chasing a Wainwright curve with the bases loaded for strike two:
(Click here if you can't see the GIF.)
And Crawford again for strike three:
(Click here if you can't see the GIF.)
Crawford is actually the most patient hitter in the Giants lineup, but these two chases were a big factor in the Giants second inning resulting in just two runs when they had the opportunity for many more. And whether or not the Giants chase Wainwright curveballs out of the zone will continue to be a big factor in the success of the St. Louis ace.
