SEATTLE — Believe it or not, Matt Brash said the best slider that he threw Thursday night was not the one that turned four-time All-Star José Ramírez into a pretzel, complete with a tumble after a flailing swing attempt.
Brash, who worked a scoreless seventh inning in Seattle’s 3-0 victory over the Guardians on Opening Day, insisted Friday that his best pitch was the slider that he struck Amed Rosario out on before he faced Ramírez. But it was the slider that Brash made Ramírez look absolutely silly on that raised the biggest eyebrows — a nasty offering that certainly got passed around a lot on Twitter.
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“Honestly, I didn’t feel like I had a great grip on the ball. Usually I try to find a seam and dig in on it,” Brash said. “But since it was so cold, it was kind of hard, it was a little slower, but it had more sweep on it.”
After getting Rosario to chase a slider outside of the strike zone for the first out of the seventh, Brash dug in against Ramírez, who is about as dangerous a hitter as you’ll find in baseball. Brash, who showed his four-seam fastball, slider and curveball earlier in the at-bat, ran the count full on Ramírez, a switch hitter who was hitting from the left side in a scoreless game.
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“You definitely want to be a little careful, but I’m still just trying to fill up the (strike) zone,” he said. “That wasn’t really where I was trying to throw it. I was trying to throw a strike.
“But the good thing about my off-speed (pitches) is I can start it in the zone and it will end up off and I can still get swings on it.”
That’s precisely what happened, as Brash’s 87 mph slider appeared as if it was headed toward the middle of the plate before it took a dramatic dive down and in to Ramírez — a pitch that would have been nearly impossible to put in play in fair territory. Ramírez flailed at the pitch, missed it badly and then tumbled over in the batter’s box. The clip of that strikeout quickly went viral and got a lot of comments from Brash’s friends afterward, including many messages that flooded his phone.
“It was a really good pitch,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh said. “When you get a hitter like that to look like that, it says a lot about the stuff he has. I think we all know what stuff Brash has.”
The pitch and result certainly impressed manager Scott Servais.
“José’s one of the best hitters in the league and has been for quite some time. He does it from both sides (of the plate) and handles nasty pitching and everything else,” Servais said. “But we all know how nasty Matt Brash can be with those breaking balls.”
Which is a big reason why the Mariners will again rely on Brash out of the bullpen as they did a year ago when he returned from Triple-A Tacoma, where he was sent to become a reliever after he struggled early in the season as a starter. In 34 relief appearances after rejoining the team, Brash had a 2.35 ERA.
“We’re going to lean on him heavily this year, as we did at the end of last year. He’s going to pitch in those moments against the heart of the lineup,” Servais said. “He’s going to face José Ramírez and guys like that. As long as he stays in attack mode, good things will happen.”
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Brash arrived in spring training in a good place, understanding — and embracing — his role. He pitched for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic before returning to camp in Arizona to get ready for the season.
“I feel like a year ago, after my first couple of starts, I had to clean up a bunch of stuff with my windup and just had a lot of stuff going on,” Brash said Friday. “But I’ve always been able to pound the zone with my stuff. I’m really comfortable this year.”
(Photo: Joe Nicholson / USA Today)