Inning-by-Inning Breakdown of Alejandro Rosario’s Start Versus the Aberdeen IronBirds

I watched every pitch that Alejandro Rosario threw tonight. If you prefer to skip to the TLDR at the bottom, go right ahead. However, for those interested, here are my observations and thoughts from Alejandro Rosario’s start tonight on August 7th:

1st Inning

• It was a good start to the game for Rosario. From the first batter of the game, the plan seemed clear of establishing his fastball early and finishing hitters off with his slider and changeup. Rosario got the first out of the game on a fly out in foul ground off a 2-2 slider. Rosario quickly got to 0-2 on two sliders, but then missed with 3 straight fastballs to fall to 3-2. He then painted a slider on the outside corner to get a swinging strikeout for his first K of the game. Rosario quickly got to 1-2 with the 3 hole hitter, but once again fell to 3-2 after Josenberger laid off 2 really good sliders. However, the next pitch Rosario was able to throw a well located fastball away to induce the fly out to center field.

Inning Totals: 2/3 first pitch strikes // 19 pitches 11 strikes

2nd inning

• Not much to talk about for the 2nd. Very efficient inning for Rosario. He got a first pitch pop out to Sebastian Walcott at 3rd, and followed that up with a 2nd pitch deep fly out to Dylan Dreiling in center. Rosario, then fell behind 2-0 to the 6 hole hitter after a slider clipped the bottom of the zone was called a ball. However, it was a moot point as the next pitch was lined out to center with Dylan Dreiling getting a good read on the ball, making a good play.

Inning Totals: 2/3 first pitch strikes // 6 pitches 4 strikes

3rd inning

• The 3rd inning started with some Deja Vu, as the first batter of the inning resulted in another first pitch fly out to Left Field. Rosario once again found himself in a 3-2 count after a very close 1-1 slider and 2-2 fastball were called balls. However, Rosario did get the swinging strikeout on a slider for his 2nd K of the game. Rosario ended the inning completely overmatching the 9 hole hitter and getting a foul tip strikeout for his 3rd K on what looked to be a changeup, but the broadcast angle made it difficult to tell.

Inning Totals: 3/3 first pitch strikes // 11 pitches 8 strikes

4th inning

• Rosario came out for the 4th with a 4-0 lead, and had another very efficient inning. He was in cruise control for the 4th inning as he had his 4th straight 1-2-3 inning off of a 1-2 weak fly out to Center, an 0-1 groundout to Shortstop, and in a 2-2 count gave up his first hard hit ball of the game. The only problem for the Aberdeen hitter, Josenberger, is that it was hit directly to Anthony Gutierrez in Right Field.

Inning Totals: 3/3 first pitch strikes // 11 pitches 8 strikes

5th inning

• The 5th inning may have been Rosario’s most dominant of the game, which I hope doesn’t come off as hyperbole in a game which he didn’t allow a hit until the 6th inning. The first pitch in the inning resulted in a really sweet play as the ball was grounded back to Rosario, who had the ball bounce right off his glove, only for it to fall right to Cam Cauley at Shortstop who made a really nice throw to get the first out of the inning. The second out came on a 1-0 grounder right back to Rosario, who this time stabbed the ball out of the air and jogged the ball over before a light toss to Arturo Disla at 1st base.

Inning Totals: 2/3 first pitch strikes // 6 pitches 5 strikes

6th inning

• The 6th inning was the first time tonight that Rosario ran into some trouble. Rosario started the inning strong with a 4 pitch strikeout on a Slider to Estrada, the 7 hole hitter. This is where Rosario ran into issues. After getting squeezed at the bottom of the zone to fall down 2-1, Malcolm Moore set up on the outside edge of the plate, but Rosario missed his location and left a fastball over the plate that De Los Santos was able to lace to left field for the first hit of the game for Aberdeen. Rosario was able to bounce back from that at bat, however, and get a pop out to Walcott from the 9 hole hitter to get to 2 outs. Next batter, lead off hitter Enrique Bradfield, ambushed the first pitch fastball Rosario threw and was able to ground an opposite field double down the 3rd base line to score the first run of the game for Aberdeen. The very next pitch Bradfield took 3rd base on a throw from Moore that was a little high and not quite on time, resulting in an easy steal. Rosario, after reaching a 1-1 count, threw his only missed slider of the evening. He left it a little too far up which allowed Hodo to reach out and poke it to right for a soft hit single to score the 2nd and last run allowed by Rosario on the night. After a mound visit, Rosario got a quick 2 pitch lineout to left field for the last run of the inning.

Inning Totals: 5/6 first pitch strikes // 19 pitches 14 strikes

7th inning

• After Hickory put up a 4 spot in the 6th, I’m very glad Rosario got the chance to go out for the 7th to get a redemption inning. Rosario quickly got ahead 0-2 to the clean up hitter, and got a sharp grounder right to Disla for the 1st out of the inning. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but after getting squeezed on a couple pitches, Rosario fell to 3-1 in the count to the 5 hole hitter. The next pitch, however, was lined to left field to end the threat. It was then once again that Rosario decided to destroy Adam Retzbach. In a simple sequence, Rosario landed a slider away in the zone for the first strike. Rosario then reeled back and laced a 98 MPH fastball past Retzbach for strike 2. Rosario decided to throw the same pitch in the same up and away location, again hitting 98 MPH, but Retzbach got a piece of it to foul it away. Unfortunately for Retzbach however, having his timing sped up by 2 straight 98 MPH heaters, he stood no chance versus the wipeout slider that Rosario threw next to pick up his 6th K of the game and finish his night having thrown 7 complete innings.

Inning Totals: 2/3 first pitch strikes // 12 pitches 9 strikes

FINAL LINE:

• 7 Innings
• 3 Hits
• 2 Earned Runs
• 0 Walks
• 6 Strikeouts
• 84 Pitches // 59 Strikes (70%)
• 19/24 First Pitch Strikes (79%)

Thoughts/TLDR:

Alejandro Rosario was dominant from the jump tonight, retiring the first 16 batters he faced. Consistently connecting with first pitch strikes kept him on schedule, and his slider was virtually unhittable tonight, aside from one slider thrown to Dougie Hodo (Hook ‘Em) that was left up a little bit. Rosario established his 4 seam fastball early on and had good command of it for most of the game, but later on he left a couple a bit too far over the plate which got punished on a pair of doubles in the 6th. Rosario mixed in split change on occasion as well, but was majority 4SFB, Sinker, and Slider tonight. I loved his manager allowing him to go back out for the 7th, and he rewarded that trust by having a lockdown inning in a good bounce back. Rosario’s stuff was on all game, as he even touched 98 twice to the last batter he faced. It was a phenomenal start for Rosario who continues to torch hitters no matter the level. Great Fastball command and devastating secondary stuff? Yeah, I stand by my belief that 5 and 6 are too low of rankings for Rosario by Baseball America and MLB.com respectively. It’s a good day to be the self-proclaimed president of the Alejandro Rosario Fan Club.

In my watching of Rosario, I also watched and wrote down a few bullet points on a few select bats from tonight:

Dylan Dreiling
(0-0): First at bat of the night resulting in a walk with a nice 7 pitch AB
(1-1): Second at bat resulting in a soft line drive to CF for single
(1-2): Third at bat he put up a really competitive 11 pitch AB, but called out looking on a good pitch inside
(1-3): Fourth at bat had a groundout to 2nd, but advanced runner to 3rd
(1-4): Fifth and final at bat called out on strikes on 6 pitches
Final: 1-4, 1 BB, 2 K (29 pitches seen in 5 plate appearances)

Sebastian Walcott
(0-1): First AB of the night smoked a rocket lineout to LF
(0-1): Second AB ended up not being an AB due to a SF to RF resulting in 1 RBI
(1-2): Second² AB of the night hit a hard grounder up the middle for a single
Stolen Base (2nd base)
Stolen Base (3rd base)
(2-3): Third at bat he hit a hard grounder to 3rd and was able to reach on an infield hit resulting in 1 RBI
Stolen base (2nd base)
(2-4): Fourth and final at bat of the night resulted in a line out to 2B
Final: 2-4, 2 RBI, 3 SB

Malcolm Moore
(0-1): First AB of the night for Moore resulted in a weak fly out to LF
(1-2): Second at bat of the night Moore smacked a double off the wall to Right Center for 1 RBI (first hit and RBI of career)
(1-3): 3rd at bat resulted in a strikeout swinging on 4 pitches
(1-4): 4th and final at bat resulted in another strikeout swinging, this time on 5 pitches
Final: 1-4, 1 RBI, 2 K

Arturo Disla
(1-1): First at bat of the game SMOKED a ball a mile to LF for 1 RBI
(1-1): Second AB of the night turned into a PA after a SF to CF for 1 RBI
(1-2): Second² AB of the night resulted in a strikeout swinging
(1-3): Third and final at bat of the night resulted in Disla reaching on a fielding error by the 2B
Final: 1-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I can yap about pitching prospects for hours, and Alejandro is one of my favorites. I hope to make more content like this soon, so stay tuned for my next start breakdown!