TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rays' Kazmir Is Close To Hitting His Rhythm

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

OAKLAND, Calif. - Joe Maddon can see it coming, and so can James Shields. Sometime soon - perhaps tonight, in his fourth start of the season - Scott Kazmir is going to fall into that natural rhythm he has grappled to find so far and everything will come together.

After spending the first five weeks of the season on the disabled list as he recovered from a strained elbow suffered early in spring training, the Rays' ace is simply getting up to speed right now - albeit with a string of 12 consecutive scoreless innings in hand.

"He's going through the same thing we went through at the beginning of the season," said Shields, "going through those struggles and not really allowing yourself to let it go."

The Rays' manager cast Kazmir's three starts to this point in the same terms.

"He's pitching with a restrictor plate," Maddon said. "He's not wanting to let it go because he just doesn't feel the command when he just lets it go. I know it's frustrating to him, but I also believe he's going to find that feeling on his fingertips, and that's where it comes from, right there, and once he gets that feeling he's going to take off again."

To Kazmir, it's a question of mechanics. He said he's getting "a little bit more in tune" with himself each time out, but he still feels like he's using too much arm and not enough body in his delivery. Rather than driving toward the plate as he delivers every pitch, he has been falling off to the side a bit upon release, affecting both his command and velocity.

With repetition and work between starts, though, he's confident everything is coming together.

"I can just feel it in every bullpen session," Kazmir said. "It's any start now that it's going to just click, that's what it feels like."

Whenever that occurs, Kazmir believes he will be a better pitcher for the work he has done in the interim. Unable to rely on pure stuff in his first three starts against the Red Sox, Angels and Yankees, he has had to focus on hitting his spots and, for the most part, he has had success.

He has walked three batters in each of his starts, more than he would like, but he limited the Angels and Yankees to three hits in six shutout innings in each of his past two outings. Most pitchers can't do that when they're on, so that speaks well of what Kazmir has been able to do to this point.

"It's going to make me a lot better pitcher, just on not having close to the stuff I want and still getting hitters out," Kazmir said. "I think it's going to be really good for accuracy, because right now it's mainly just, 'I've got to hit spots.' For the most part, it feels like I'm throwing the ball where I want to."

Kazmir also has had a bit of help from his fellow rotation anchor, Shields. Primarily a fastball-slider pitcher throughout his career, Kazmir has begun using his change-up more often after getting some pointers from Shields, whose change is his signature pitch.

"He's throwing my change-up, but he's got his own little way of throwing it and it's a little different from the left side, but he's throwing it really well," Shields said. "It's got good depth, he's got great arm speed on it and he's throwing it with confidence. He hasn't had that with his change-up the last couple of years."

Kazmir acknowledged that his change-up, which could be an effective weapon against right-handed hitters in particular, is "coming along."

Add a new pitch - or at least a pitch he's newly confident in - to mechanics that figure to come around sooner rather than later, and Kazmir hopes to be back to the form that made him an All-Star before long.

"It's going to be fun once we get everything together," he said.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT