Newcomb collected called strikes before an eighth-inning double

José Ramírez took a slurve and a four-seam fastball for strikes against Sean Newcomb in the sixth inning. After a 97.6 mph fastball missed for a ball, a 94.8 mph sinker was called strike three. Ramírez made no swing in the four-pitch plate appearance, a direct example of how Newcomb advanced through hitters by collecting taken strikes.

Newcomb completed two scoreless innings and faced one batter in the eighth during Chicago’s 2–0 ALDS Game 5 loss to Cleveland at Progressive Field on October 10. He allowed two hits, walked nobody, struck out three and threw 23 pitches. Petey Halpin’s leadoff double in the eighth ended his appearance and left Grant Taylor responsible for protecting the score with a runner at second.

Eight of Newcomb’s pitches were called strikes, compared with three that produced misses. That distinction explains more of the outing than a generic strikeout description. His contacts also included two hard-hit balls, so the scoreless result cannot be treated as evidence that he consistently kept Cleveland from making forceful contact.

Several pitch types found the zone without a swing

The appropriate season comparison is 1,291 physical pitches in 54 regular-season relief appearances for Chicago. Newcomb used nine four-seamers, six slurves, five sinkers, two changeups and one curve in Game 5. Four-seamers and sinkers occupied shares close to that relief baseline, while the slurve fell from 31.4% to 26.1%.

Four-seamers supplied four called strikes, slurves two and sinkers two. The combination allowed him to finish Steven Kwan on a called slurve and Ramírez on a called sinker. Jo Adell’s strikeout ended on a changeup miss. Those are three different finishing classifications, but two of the strikeouts depended on a final take rather than an empty swing.

Both changeups produced misses. With only two changeups thrown, that result should not be promoted into a stable rate or a claim that the pitch was newly dominant. Newcomb’s total was three misses in 12 attempts, or 25.0%, close to 23.8% across the season relief baseline. He obtained substantially more called strikes in this game than misses.

The four-seamer averaged 96.2 mph against 94.8 in the comparison, and the sinker averaged 95.4 against 93.5. The Ramírez sequence used a slurve at 83.1, then fastballs at 96.8 and 97.6 before the sinker finish. That sequence illustrates speed and classification changes, while the diagram keeps the exact final locations separate from assumptions about targets or hitter expectations.

The final runner required another pitcher

Chase DeLauter singled on a sinker at a measured 110.2 mph in the sixth. Newcomb still completed that inning without a run. In the seventh, Travis Bazzana reached on a fielding error before Patrick Bailey grounded into a double play. That double play supplied two outs and helped limit the workload to eight pitches in the inning.

Halpin’s eighth-inning double came on a slurve at 97.3 mph off the bat. It was the second hard-hit ball among five contacts, whose average measured exit speed was 94.4 mph. The regular-season relief comparison averaged 86.6 mph across 225 measured contacts. Five contacts are a small sample, but they provide clear counterevidence to describing this as uniformly weak contact.

Taylor stranded Halpin, resolving Newcomb’s final runner and keeping his line scoreless. The official two innings pitched represent six outs even though Newcomb appeared in parts of three innings. The workload chart marks the two-pitch eighth as an inning with no out recorded, rather than counting it as a third complete inning.

Newcomb had thrown 40 pitches in relief in Game 2 on October 5 and 22 as the Game 3 opener on October 7. The opener’s role differs from this relief appearance and from the main baseline. Game 5 establishes a useful contribution from taken strikes, but another appearance would test whether that contribution can recur without the high exit speeds recorded on two of the five contacts.