When Dillon Gee uses his all of his pitches and his change-up in particular, he can be a very effective mid-rotation starter.
Gee was certainly throwing his change-up for strikes on Saturday night – he threw 81.8 percent of those pitches for strikes and got the Braves to swing at it 15 times. However, of the six change-ups the Braves put in play against Gee, he only got three outs.
“I look back, and I think there are some things I wish I did differently,” Gee said after the loss.
Gee – who lost to the Braves for the first time since June 17, 2013 – said he regretted not mixing in his breaking ball more, and believes that might have hurt him in particular.
“I think I threw one or two [breaking balls] all night,” Gee said. “Looking back I wish I did more of that and mixed a little better.”
Gee allowed five runs in five innings, four of which came in the fifth inning.
He became predictable in the fifth inning. He actually recorded his highest strike count of the night in that inning, but he was throwing too many hittable fastballs and change-ups, especially while he was ahead in the count. The Braves attacked him as a result, and put the Mets in a very deep hole.
Gee has a good curveball and it would’ve served as a nice adjustment pitch as the Braves began to solve his change-up in the fifth inning. He isn’t a guy who can live in the middle of the plate and he has to live on the edges. His change-up began to float over the plate in the fifth inning and as he said, he didn’t use his breaking ball to off-set that problem.
Terry Collins and Dan Warthen have repeatedly emphasized the importance for Gee to use all of his pitches over the years. When he was at his best in 2013, Gee did just that, but he’s gotten away from using his entire repertoire since returning from the lat injury last year.
Gee spoke about getting his program back to where it was before the injury, but clearly it’s still a work in progress for him.
Just Mets 