Chicago Cubs starter Jordan Wicks was efficient and smooth on Tuesday against the Houston Astros. The 24-year-old lefty had the Astros off balance and swinging early in counts, which led to outs for much of the game.
Coming into the series opener, Wicks failed to make it through five innings over his first four starts. That all changed Tuesday as the southpaw went six strong, allowing five hits and two runs while walking zero and fanning four.
The best part was, thanks to the strong five-run first-inning outburst by the Cubs offense, the outing never felt stressful. Wicks only needed 86 pitches to make it through six frames for his first quality start of the season.
Jordan Wicks Pitching Breakdown
Wicks' arsenal was essentially the same one he's shown thus far this season. However, he slightly increased his percentage of changeups thrown, creeping closer to the rate of four-seam fastballs thrown.
Four-seam fastball - Tuesday: 41% | Season average: 46.2%
Changeup - Tuesday: 35% | Season average: 24.1%
Sinker - Tuesday: 13% | Season average: 14.7%
Curveball - Tuesday: 7% | Season average: 5.9%
Slider - Tuesday: 5% | Season average: 8.5%
The breakdown above shows slight differences in curveball and slider usage from Wicks' season average. However, he threw very few curveballs and sliders altogether (10 combined total), which isn't notable.
Coming up as a prospect, Wicks was known for his highly touted changeup. It's encouraging that it has translated incredibly well to the big-league level to this point. His changeup has a .146 batting average against and a 53.1 percent whiff rate for the season. Regarding the whiff rate, that's the fifth-best mark in MLB on changeups among those qualified.
On Tuesday against the Astros, Wicks again dominated with the changeup as eight of his 11 total whiffs came on the pitch. Furthermore, none of his other offerings generated more than one whiff.
Major Difference vs. Astros
At times this season, Wicks has nibbled too much, which has led to walks, heightened pitch counts, and early exits from games. That wasn't the case on Tuesday.
Instead, Wicks forced Astros hitters to be aggressive earlier in counts and trusted his stuff to generate weak contact. These factors allowed him to go deeper in the game, albeit with his lowest single-game strikeout total of the season (four).
If he can build on Tuesday's outing and continue to use his changeup as effectively as he has, Wicks might find himself locked into a Cubs' rotation spot for a long time.
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