Nam Y. Huh/AP Photos
Cubs southpaw Justin Steele’s sinker froze Rangers left-handed hitter Josh Smith. It was a pitch Steele didn’t often unleash, and while most of his pitches to lefties start on the outside half of the plate and move out, this one broke that trend.
“We had two strikes, and I was like, ‘I haven’t thrown him anything that’s going the other way right now,’” Steele said after the Cubs’ 7-0 win Monday. “So I kind of started on that same line, and I feel like it was an auto-take for him because he figured it was going to go off the plate.