Myers Turns Corner?

It started out pretty much like any other night for Brett Myers.  The first inning was once again a rough one, highlighted by the lack of control Myers has shown all season.  He fell behind almost every hitter, walked one on four pitches to load the bases, and had trouble with his fastball.  If it was anywhere near the strike zone, it was right down the middle.

Sure, a poorly played ball in left by Pat Burrell didn’t help.  But Myers also got some help from the Marlins when Dan Uggla took a bad hack at the first pitch and popped up.  Call it even.  Myers simply didn’t have command of anything at the start, and it looked like it was going to be another one of those nights.

But something happened after those three runs scored that I haven’t seen all year, and if you’re a Phillies fan, it had to be encouraging.  Brett Myers was able to refocus, bear down, and get out of the inning.  What followed was his best outing of the season.

Myers wound up going 8.0 strong, giving up just the three first-inning runs and striking out 11.  Where in the first inning his strikes were catching the heart of the plate, it seemed like Myers painted every corner like Van Gogh for the next seven.  It’s not just the innings, it’s the command he showed.  He threw 117 pitches last night, and 75 of them went for strikes.  Take away that rough first inning where it seemed like he spotted every hitter a 2-0 count, and you see that Myers’ ball-to-strike ratio last night was pretty dominant.

And they were good strikes.  His curve ball was the sharpest it’s been all year, and his fastball had the kind of movement on it that baffled hitters when Myers was closing last year.  He had hitters feeling uncomfortable up there, and it showed in a big way.  Over the last 8 innings of the game, the Marlins managed just two hits.

But what can we really take from this?  He’s had good outings this season before.  It was just a few weeks ago on May 3rd against San Francisco that Myers went 7.0 innings giving up just a pair of runs and striking out 10.  It’s not like last night was an epiphany, was it?

Two thoughts here.  For one thing, this outing was different than the one against the Giants for two reasons.  First, because Myers used all his pitches last night, and used them masterfully.  Second, because Myers got the win, whereas he only managed a no-decision against the Giants.

That really gets to my second thought, which is that Myers is the one who needs to be happy about this.  We can all talk about how good he looked, and how maybe this is where he turns the corner for this season.  But Brett has to believe it himself.  Getting that win is a huge monkey off his back, and I think it will help his confidence.  It’s also been four starts since he gave up a home run, something that was plaguing him early on this year.

But the fact is that Myers has gone 7.0 innings or more five times now this season.  What he’s struggled with is consistency.  He needs to have a good start his next time out and build some momentum for himself, otherwise this could all have been for nothing.  But I’ll tell you this: He sure did look like he had it all figured out last night, and now the Phillies are in first place all by themselves.