So, Felipe Vazquez, how'd you sleep?
"Like a baby," the Pirates' closer came back to my query on this Sunday morning at PNC Park. "I didn't die yesterday."
Funny how that works, I'd respond. It's as if there's another game the next day.
For all else that transpired in that tantalizing yet terribly deflating 12-10 loss to the Brewers less than 24 hours earlier, nothing topped this for shock value:
That, of course, was Milwaukee's Keston Hiura getting maximum barrel on a 1-0, 97.9-mph fastball, and launching it off the facade to the second deck of the left-field bleachers. Which is rare air on all fronts, not least of which is that Vazquez had been 14 for 14 in saves, 41 of 42 dating to last summer, until that. And oh, yeah, he'd held opponents scoreless in 18 of 23 appearances this season, most often mercilessly mowing them down.
But then, that's the life of the closer. He can pump his fist and fake-punch his catchers after a W, but all eyes are on him after even a single setback.
"I know that. I understand it. That's my job," Vazquez was telling me. "But it was one bad pitch. I know that, too."
It wasn't even all bad. He and Elias Diaz followed a first-pitch slider with heat that was supposed to push Hiura off the plate. Even though Diaz's mitt sets up outside -- the Pirates have distrusted the Brewers for years when it comes to stealing signs and stances -- the pitch was intended to go inside. Which it did. Just not nearly enough.
Craig Counsell, Milwaukee's manager, called Hiura's home run "huge, off a really good pitcher," adding, "That’s big league baseball.” And he still might have been underselling it. Get this: Per MLB.com's Statcast, Vazquez's pitch arrived with an outrageous spin rate of 2,517 revolutions per minute, and Hiura's home run was just the 10th all season, anywhere in the majors, off a pitch of such combined velocity and spin rate.
Vazquez acknowledged watching his full outing again. No regrets. Not even a cringe from the sound of it.
"I can't be perfect," he said. "I looked at all of my pitches, and I made good pitches. One bad one. I'm ready to go again."
Big smile.
