SAN DIEGO — Here it is. Try to hit it.
Has baseball ever been distilled to anything more basic than that? Such bravado is disappearing in the game. Spin is in. Deception dominates. For the first time in recorded history, major league pitchers threw fastballs with less than half their pitches, 48.6%. Just six years ago it was 56.3%. More than 68,000 fastballs went poof! in the name of advanced metrics, pitching labs and incredibly detailed scouting reports on hitters.
The Phillies don’t play that postmodern, passive-aggressive game. They are dialing up the heat and turning back the clock.