Man-crushing on Trevor Rosenthal

One tweet last night seemed to say it all when it came to the Cardinals' victory over the Boston Red Sox last night in Game Two of the World Series:

The "old guy" pitching for the Cards today - Trevor Rosenthal - coming on for save chance. He turned 23 in May.
— Kevin Wheeler (@KMOXWheeler) October 25, 2013

That "old guy" was simply amazing...again.

I find Trevor Rosenthal to be thrilling to watch. There are two great closers in this series. Koji Uehara has also been amazing this season. But he is a different kind of closer. If you look closely at Uehara's statistics, he relies on deception to get the job done. He enticed batters to swing at 43% of his pitches outside the strike zone and throws only 50% of his pitches in the zone.

This means that if a team could set its mind, that team could take a bunch of pitches and make Uehara throw strikes. While that is very hard to do as my bud, Ben Dobbs, points out, it is still doable. It was such a strategy the Red Sox employed to beat Fernando Rodney earlier in the post season.

But no such strategy can beat Trevor Rosenthal. All he does is throw lethal gas that is at times untouchable. He threw eleven pitches and struck out the side...again. He threw two balls and one of them was borderline. The other ball missed by just a couple of inches. His pitches ranged from 96.1 miles per hour to 99.4. He averaged 98. Just look at this pitch chart from Brooksbaseball.net:

Do you see anything in the middle of the plate? Nope. The Red Sox tried to wait him out like they do with most pitchers. That was a waste of time with Rosenthal. Of the nine strikes he recorded, only three were swung at. None of those swings connected. 

That chart is amazing. How many pitchers can throw that hard and yet still go in and out in the strike zone and not be touched? And the in and out do not appear to be an accident. Let's look at each batter:

Johnny Gomes

Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Daniel Nava

In, out, up and down. Paint. No chance. 

The Red Sox had their hands full last night. Michael Wacha threw 65 fastballs with a average of 93.7 and a tops of 96.8 MPH. Then they saw 21 fastballs from Carlos Martinez that averaged 96.5 and a tops of 98.6. And Martinez was brilliant too, no doubt about that.

But it is Trevor Rosenthal that I cannot wait to see. My man-crush is full blown. I love this guy.

Trevor Rosenthal's ninth inning was pretty good

Before these 2013 playoffs, Trevor Rosenthal had recorded four professional saves in his career. He had one in the minors in 2010 and three at the end of this current Major League season. And yet, after his ninth inning against the Dodgers on Saturday, can you picture anyone else closing games for the Cardinals? His ninth inning might have been one of the most dominant post season saves I have ever witnessed.

According to the Play Index at Baseball-reference.com, Rosenthal became only the sixth pitcher ever to record a post season save while facing three batters and striking them all out. The others:

• Kenley Jansen - NLDS (2013) in Game 4 against the Braves.
• Sergio Romo - WS (2012) in Game 4 against the Tigers.
• Kazuhiro Sasaki - ALDS (2000) in Game 2 against the White Sox
• Trevor Hoffman - NLDS (1998) in Game 3 against the Astros
• Randy Myers - NLCS (1990) in Game 3 against the Pirates.

That's it. Think of all the big-name closers missing from that list.

Rosenthal needed fourteen pitches to quell the Dodgers. According to Brooksbaseball.net, ten of them were strikes. They were all fastballs. Those fastballs averaged 99 MPH with a top speed of 101.2. Two were called strikes. Eight were swinging strikes and six of those were swing and misses.

His first victim was Yasiel Puig, who looks completely lost at the plate. This at bat went seven pitches. Puig took two strikes and swung through another. He fouled one off. Puig struck out. Puig wore the Golden Sombrero with four strikeouts in four plate appearances for the game.

Rosenthal's second victim was Juan Uribe, a player who has post season heroics on his resume. The closer dispatched Uribe on four pitches. Uribe fouled one off and took one ball that could have been a strike and swung and missed on two others.

Andre Ethier then pinch hit for Shoemaker and did not stand a chance. Ethier swung at three straight pitches, the second one being 101.2 MPH and did not get close to hitting anything. In the words of that Bugs Bunny cartoon, "Strike one-Strike two-Strike three-you're out." I am sure Ethier thanked manager, Don Mattingly, for that pinch hit opportunity.

Trevor Rosenthal now has eleven games under his belt as a post season pitcher. He has pitched a total of 13.2 innings. He has allowed no runs. He has allowed four hits and four walks (one intentional) and has struck out 22 batters. That is a force of nature right there.

You cannot take away what Michael Wacha did in this game. It was the biggest factor in why the Cardinals won the game. But gosh, you had to watch that ninth inning and whistle at how Trevor Rosenthal is rocking and rolling coming out of the bullpen. What a weapon.