Mark J. Rebilas-USA Today Sports
The Arizona Diamondbacks were looking for their starting pitcher Ian Kennedy to build off the strong start that rookie starting pitcher Patrick Corbin had in the previous game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he pitched remarkably better than Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. Corbin was able to navigate around some tricky situations he had put himself in, but Kennedy was not as fortunate as Corbin.
The Dodgers were able to break through against Kennedy by having base runners on in basically every inning they faced him. Kennedy had his command and location working for him in the early innings, but he seemed to lose some of the confidence he had in his pitches as the game went on.
The issue for Kennedy was that the majority of the pitches that he threw to the Dodgers were left up in the strike zone. Kennedy was also having an issue with his fastball command in the innings that the Dodgers were able to score runs off him.
When Kennedy was not able to throw his fastball for strikes with consistency, the Dodgers were able sit on his off-speed pitches in the game.
Kennedy needs to have better command of his fastball in future starts this season, and this will make his breaking pitches more effective. The opposing hitters Kennedy faces will not only be thinking about his fastball, but also his secondary pitches as well.
Kennedy did have a rough start, but he will work with his pitching coach Charles Nagy to correct the mistakes he made.
Chris is the Diamondbacks writer for www.RantSports.com
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