Seattle Mariners Three Stars of 3-2 Week 13
Star #1: Paul Sewald
2-0, 3 games, 2.1 innings, no-hits, 1 base runner.
The 31-year-old veteran right-handed reliever is having an incredible season. Prior to the 2021 campaign, Paul Sewald was 1-14 with a 5.50 ERA over parts of four seasons with the Mets. His move to Seattle has proven to be an excellent one. He is 5-2 with a 1.86 ERA, but it’s other numbers that are incredible, even for a reliever.
During week 13 action, Sewald extended his no-hits in an appearance streak to seven games, which includes 6.1 innings pitched. He also has 10 Ks over that span. For the season he has been well over his career strikeouts-per-nine numbers and that’s either an anomaly or he’s evolving.
Looking over his velocity, movement, and spin rates and you see that Sewald now relies more on a high-spin rate slider which has enhanced his 4-seam fastball. He’s also keeping his slider down in the zone.
Aside from improved placement, Sewald’s slider changed from a side-to-side sweeping movement to a ball that drops vertically by nearly five inches. He also completely abandoned a change-up and only throws two pitches now.
While the velocity on both of his premier pitches has remained relatively unchanged, he has improved greatly. due to a shift in the direction of his slider, which forces batters to react while in the zone instead of being able to drop the barrel of the bat and sweep through the zone and make decent contact on a side-to-side slider. As a result, there is more value to a fastball that he controls really well in the zone.
The jury is still out on whether 2021 is an anomaly for Sewald or he’s truly evolved, but for now, the Seattle Mariners need to ride his arm.
Joe Swenson is an award-winning playwright, author, director, producer, and lifelong Seattle sports fan.