After Rick Porcello bombed in his debut start, Michael Wacha took the mound to begin the series against the Boston Red Sox on Monday looking to do the exact opposite.
Mission accomplished.
Wacha was stellar in his five innings of work, as he secured his first win in the blue and orange. In his 77 pitches, Wacha allowed one run – a solo homer to Mitch Moreland – and four other hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
The righty had his patented changeup really working in this one, as the Sox hitters just continued to swing underneath it. With sharp bite on his cutter as well, Wacha was attacking hitters and looked very confident on the bump.
“I felt like I had pretty good command of the fastball, cutter, and changeup,” he said after the Mets’ 7-4 victory. “Me and [Wilson] Ramos, we got on a nice little groove there. We were attacking the zone and making pitches. Just trying to let the defense play behind me and make plays and they did just that.”
The changeup, which Wacha called his “bread and butter,” is something he worked on a lot this offseason to get it back to where it was in 2015 when he was an All-Star. Working on changes in his mechanics helped that, as SNY’s Steve Gelbs noted during the broadcast that he emphasized his finish to the mound not being one that saw him fall off toward first base.
Standing more upright and following through normally has helped that pitch a ton, and it was on full display in Fenway Park.
“I spent a lot of the offseason and these last few months during the quarantine and shutdown working on mechanics stuff and getting it to where I need it to be,” he said.
“[The changeup] made me who I am. Good to get some swings and misses on it, some weak contact on it.”
Wacha did say before the season started that he was “in a good spot,” and he showcased that in his first start.