Early starts him off with a slider, and Thomas is looking for another first-pitch fastball. He\u2019s out in front and whiffs for strike one.<\/p>\n
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View Link<\/a><\/p>\n He follows it up with a really good changeup, and Thomas is again out in front to make it 0-2.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n And at 0-2, Early dots a fastball for called strike three. This pitch worked for a few reasons. The first is that it starts in a very similar location to the first pitch slider, but it stays straight instead of continuing to run in on him. The second reason is that Early threw so much spin to this point in the game, he could slip fastballs by for called strikes. He threw 23 fastballs to righties and only got eight swings. That isn\u2019t a bad thing, because he was in the zone and got 30% called strikes with his four-seam. The thing is, his fastballs were hittable. Here\u2019s the heatmap.<\/p>\n Early deserves credit for setting up his fastball so that he could slip it by hitters, but they\u2019re in very hittable locations, and the shape isn\u2019t so incredible to compensate. Don\u2019t get me wrong, it worked great. This is major league baseball, though, and hitters make adjustments, especially when they get another chance at it one week later. For that reason, I was interested to see if Early could adjust.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Would you just get to the point already? Relax. That stuff was important to set up this next part. It\u2019s called exposition or foreshadowing or something.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Early took the mound against the Athletics again, with mostly the same lineup. My expectation was that the A\u2019s would be more aggressive and wouldn\u2019t allow Early to spin them to death, especially the righties. First-pitch breaking balls are great when hitters aren\u2019t expecting them. When they start in the zone and finish out, hitters hunting fastballs are get in front and whiff. When they start out and land in, those same hitters take them for called strikes. If someone is looking for a first-pitch curveball, they get sent to the seats.<\/p>\n The Red Sox coaching staff must have had a similar expectation, because Early totally changed his approach and stayed one step ahead of the A\u2019s. In his debut, he didn\u2019t throw a single sinker to righties. In the rematch, it was featured heavily. He used it in all counts, in the zone to get strikes. Rather than trying to sneak his four-seam by, he made an effort to elevate the pitch for whiffs. He also featured more changeups, the pitch that got rave reviews in the minor leagues, and it came through for him. Let\u2019s get to the action.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Brent Rooker in the first inning. Rooker was 0-3 with three strikeouts against Early in the first meeting. He saw four fastballs on 14 pitches.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Early begins with a sinker that starts on the outside edge and runs off the plate. Rooker is looking for something coming towards him and comes up empty.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Early tries to play the changeup off of it. It looks the same out of his hand, but the changeup is slower and shows significantly more drop. This one is too far outside, but it\u2019s a good idea, and it\u2019s a miss that can\u2019t be punished.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Early goes back to the sinker and dots the bottom corner. With two strikes, Rooker is more ready for it and hits it well, but it\u2019s a difficult pitch to drive in the air, and Trevor Story is positioned perfectly to field the ball and end the inning. Let\u2019s look at one more.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Darell Hernaiz. He was 0-2 with a strikeout against Early in the first meeting, seeing only one fastball.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Early starts him with a fastball, but misses just inside. Good spot, just a little too far in.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n He goes with the changeup, and it\u2019s a really good one. Hernaiz is out in front and barely gets his bat on it to foul it off. That\u2019s as good as a whiff with no strikes.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n In an even count, Early goes back to the changeup but leaves this one a little low. Early should avoid tripling up on the changeup at 2-1.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n This is great. Ahead in the count, Hernaiz wants something to drive, and Early places his sinker perfectly on the corner to even the count. With two strikes, Early can throw pretty much anything, but this is where I\u2019d like to see the elevated fastball after several pitches down in the zone. I\u2019d avoid another sinker with the hitter protecting the plate, unless he wants to front hip it, but even that\u2019s probably not in his bag right now.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Yuck. Early spikes the curveball to run the count full. You don\u2019t want to walk a runner over to second, so he should throw whatever he feels confident getting in the zone.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n So much for walking a runner over to second, right? I had heard a lot about his pick-off move, but hadn\u2019t actually seen it. Turns out it\u2019s pretty good. You still don\u2019t want to walk a runner, but there\u2019s a little more leeway with nobody on and two outs.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n Early goes back to the sinker. It starts on the outside edge and runs out of the zone. Hernaiz is protecting with two strikes and can only tap it back to Early, who makes the easy play. He had the sinker in his debut, but kept it on the shelf against righties. In this outing, it featured more prominently and did an excellent job.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Early\u2019s pitch shapes from his first start to his second were materially the same. His release point was the same. I wasn\u2019t paying close attention, but his haircut appeared unchanged from his previous start. On the surface, the A\u2019s were facing Connelly Early for a second time in a week, but the Early they got the second time around was a wholly different pitcher. That\u2019s really, really impressive for a pitcher with five career innings under his belt.<\/p>\n I feel like I put a nice bow on that. If you want to stop reading there, I\u2019m totally fine with that. If you want to watch one more at-bat with me, please do. Here he is against Lawrence Butler, a lefty, just for fun.<\/p>\n View Link<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a sinker, in on the hands to start the at-bat. Butler is late and can\u2019t get around it, fouling it off to go down 0-1.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/d78785cacb20d1ef070146434e5f244d.jpeg\"\/)
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