Pittsburgh Pirates Jason Grilli: Modern Day Houdini

Jason Grilli has some pretty sick numbers coming out of the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen.  Grilli is a modern day Houdini this season.  Check out the quick highlights:

On May 14, gives up two hits against the Marlins.  Strands both runners.  Strikes out two.

On May 13 against the Astros gives up a walk, but gets a strikeout.

On May 9 against the Nats, he gave up one hit and two walks, but struckout two to escape his own stunt.

It’s been like that a lot recently.  In Grilli’s last ten outings, he has allowed a hit or a walk in eight of those games.  But do you know what he’s done in each and every one of his last ten appearances?  He has had a strikeout, at least one, but that’s weak, Grilli piles them up.

Check it out:

Grilli has struckout two batters against the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Cardinals, Reds, Nats, and Marlins.  Six times he has struckout two batters in his past ten outings.  Six Times!  He also struckout the side against Atlanta on April 28.

He came on and struckout the only batter he faced on April 21 against St. Louis.  The right hander came back on May 2 and did it again to the Cardinals, he also struckout one Astro on May 13.

It will be hard for Grilli to keep up this pace.  He has at least one strikeout in every one of his appearances over 14 innings.  He has given up ten hits and four earned runs.  He has eight walks, but a gaudy 25 punchouts is tremendous.  The whiffs are coming from his well located fastball which avergaes 93.3 miles per hour, the highest since 2007.

Looking at some trouble spots for the right hander are his 92% strand rate which is impossible to continue.  Well maybe not, Houdini did quite a few things that people called impossible.