WooSox reliever threw 'hardest he's ever thrown' in Worcester this week
When the Red Sox promoted reliever Ryan Fernandez to Worcester this season, they knew they were getting a hard-throwing pitcher who put up impressive numbers in Double-A.
Fernandez went 2-1 with a 1.77 ERA over 20.1 innings pitched before his promotion to Worcester. He also struck out 26 batters in that span. Fast forward to today, Fernandez has now appeared in 14 games.
His most recent game has been his best when he threw against Buffalo on Tuesday in relief. The right-hander threw two scoreless and hitless innings and ended up striking out four.
“It was electric.” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said of the outing. “We have seen velocity to this point. I remember his very first outing in Norfolk he was touching 97 MPH and I knew that it was a good arm. It was mostly just a fastball on the edge and a little cutter complimenting it that was 91 MPH. Abbott has worked with him on developing the slider. All of sudden you see 91 MPH and it breaks like a slider. He’s throwing 99 MPH and throwing a 92 MPH slider with depth in and out of the zone. It was by far and away the best relief appearance in terms of the consistency of strikes, stuff, and tempo. It was fun to watch.”
Fernandez walked away from the outing and had no idea he had thrown the hardest pitch he has ever thrown in his time in the Red Sox system. He officially clocked in at 99.8 MPH, even though the video board had registered 100 MPH.
“I grabbed him the next day and told him I want to see that a lot because that is a big league reliever.” Tracy added. “The slider is a big part of it but I think he is gaining confidence now throwing the slider with that grip and he can be very aggressive with his fastball as well.”
While Fernandez was proud and ecstatic to have set a career best in terms of velocity, he joked that he would be “searching for triple digits” at some point in the near future.
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