Well, I mean,

I think that kind of goes with what I had been talking about this whole time.

I literally was throwing it one day with Holmesy in catch play.

It was moving how I wanted it to, and I was like, hey, if I was playing catch with this two-seam grip, I've thrown it before, it didn't really work out, it'd be good for a little bit, then it goes bad, and he's like, well, let's throw it in the bullpen and see, and I threw it in the bullpen, and he was like, and he tried that, like, go give it a rip.

Worst comes worst, you can go back to the old changeup in the middle of the game.

Um, so just kind of that thought process and that approach just kind of frees you up.

Like, Hey, let's go see if this is going to work.

Yeah.

I think you only went like 75 pitches, had some lunch in the tank, or too hot today, or just what Walt decided to do? No,

I tried to go back out there at the seventh, but like I said before, when Walt tells me I'm done, that's when I'm done.

So I just said okay, and tried to plead my case a little bit, but he said no, you're done, so I said yes, sir.

Velocity was a little down today.

Anything to that? No, I think more than anything we're just trying to, you know, attack early and I think the weeks past, you know, my stuff had gotten a little better from that bad stretch.

But more than anything, I was trying to get a little too fine.

So today I was just trying to, you know, go right at guys and I know the velocity's down, but I thought the stuff was pretty good.

Analyze his

But, uh, obviously the, the first two starts after the break have been pretty, uh, pretty solid.

Yeah, I mean, and I've heard a couple people say it, um, in the past, you know, week or so is all we do is kind of win control, win control.

Um, and our job is to, to give these guys a chance to, um, score some runs and, uh, keep it close enough that when they do score runs, we win ball games.

So, um, you know, that is what it is and, and that ain't nothing we can control.

So we just try to, uh, go out and, and, and give the team a chance to win and have my business.

How about what you guys have seen from Austin Riley? I, I mean, uh, maybe the power will come along with it, but I think he's close to three hundred with an eight hun-- or close to nine hundred OPS since the break.

Yeah, I mean, I've watched him for a long time.

I know Doobie's played against him some, but, um, you know, you, you go through stretches where you struggle.

the way you have and just get some consistency back

yeah it's been good i think even tonight is a little bit of a grind a lot of three ball counts um but to be able to just kind of keep it in there and you guys haven't made a lot of good plays so i appreciate that but yes it feels good to kind of get rolling against second half how about just getting deep into games i know that's kind of been your biggest demo yeah i think last week in baltimore was i think i had 24 or something, 23 pitching, the first two that he went tonight went just real sharp early.

But to be able to kind of have that, I guess it was the fifth, maybe it's five or six pitch, just to kind of keep that rolling and get to the sixth, it was good.

What does that stat mean for you? I mean,

it means a lot.

Like I've said before, it hadn't always been pretty, but showing up every fifth day and trying to give the team a chance to win, that's kind of...

You know, that's one thing that I've always kind of been able to hang my hat on is when I need to go, I'll go.

And so hopefully we've got a couple hundred more in there and hopefully we're just getting started.

What do you think was the biggest

difference? I mean, the rest.

I mean, there's the return from batteries.

Yeah, maybe.

I mean, I just kind of hit a wall physically there for a little bit.

And I think it just kind of got things out of whack.

And then I was trying to use the cues that I had been that were working, you know, for 10, 12, 13 starts.

When you're going through that, as far as your arsenal is concerned, is it the sinker that you feel that the most on? Is that kind of the one that's the one that fought you the most?