Mark Grote

It's fine.

Matthew Boyd's opening day start was a big reason why they lost two out of three.

But Shota Managa giving up four runs over five plus in his first start, if I told you this is what's going to happen on Sunday, I bet you would have signed up for that with Jake Irvin opposite him.

But it got really bad again at the end of last season to the point where a lot of us were wondering, has he lost a step as a starting pitcher?

Is it because he was so terrific in 2024 and all of that?

Rookie of the Year candidate, Cy Young candidate.

It was great!

But something has been lost, and maybe I missed it.

Did you guys see the velocity go up yesterday?

Because I was hit over the head in spring training about his velocity going up.

Yeah, it actually was.

Did it?

Yeah, it was.

On the four-seam fastballs, it was an average of 92 miles an hour.

And on September 25th of 2025, he threw 44 seamers at 90.7.

Okay.

So those are the numbers from Marquee.

And the reason why I had that is because I wanted to take a picture of the graphic.

But here's the issue.

There's a lot of guys who throw gas and the fastball is too straight.