The Los Angeles Dodgers landed Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the 2020 World Series on Tuesday. After the final out of Game 1, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced who would be his starter for Wednesday’s game 2. Lucky guy? Right-hander Tony Gonsolin, who achieved a 2.60 ERA and a 6.57 strikeout two-walk ratio during the regular season after changing his mechanics to change his hand stroke and front position.
Gonsolin, 26, has released the previous two postseason this October. In this outing, he has given up seven runs on five hits and six vows over 6 1/3 innings. Most recently, he threw a pair of innings in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves. Gonsolin faced 11 batters and six of them retired.
Gonsolin does most of his work with three pitches: a fastball ball, a splitter and a slider. Fastball is the only pitch that tends to throw in that zone. It’s also a jar that, more or less, works on its glove side. Rays hitters would be prudent to target that area when they are in play.
The rays will face the left hand black snail. The 2018 Sai Young Award winner will enter his World Series. In this postseason four other appearances, it has managed a 3.20 ERA despite having a strikeout-to-v ratio worse than 2.00 Snell has averaged five innings per appearance.
