Arizona Diamondbacks: Robbie Ray is Dominating
By Jason Burke
The Arizona Diamondbacks are sitting pretty at 39-26, and their starting rotation has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting this season. One member that may not be getting enough recognition is Robbie Ray, who has been stellar over his last five starts.
You may be surprised to hear that the Arizona Diamondbacks lead all of baseball in fWAR among starting rotations. While one of the men atop their WAR leaderboard is no surprise (it’s Zack Greinke), the man tied with him may be a bit of an unknown.
Robbie Ray is a 25-year-old left-hander that is 7-3 this season with a 2.62 ERA. While that’s a nice stat line, it doesn’t necessarily stand out at this point in the year. What does draw some attention however, is the fact that Ray has allowed just one earned run in his last five starts, totaling 38 innings pitched. He’s struck out 48 in that span and allowed just 14 hits while walking nine.
The streak started (somewhat predictably) against the San Diego Padres at Petco back on May 20. Robbie went 7 2/3 innings, allowed two hits, walked three and struck out six. Not a bad outing, but it was against the worst offense in baseball. The second of these five starts came in Milwaukee against the Brewers where he was even better, lasting seven frames, giving up two hits, striking out nine and not walking a single hitter. To finish out May, Ray tossed a complete game shutout in Pittsburgh.
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Ironically, the scoreless streak ended against the aforementioned worst offense in baseball (because divisional games are cooky) at home against the Pads. He went 6 2/3, gave up a solo home run, walked two and struck out a then season-high eleven. Ray then broke that season high yesterday by striking out 12 Brewers at Chase Field. This stretch of five starts has lowered his ERA from 4.57 to 2.62.
So what gives? Well, we’ve seen a large increase in his fastball usage, going up to as high as 65% usage to his current 56.5%. Tinkering with pitch usage can certainly have an effect, but his walk rate (3.7 per nine) and strikeout rate (11.3) were exactly the same as his output last season heading into yesterday’s game. In 2016 Ray had a 4.90 ERA with a 3.76 FIP. Not exactly the same results.
In his start earlier in the week against the Brewers, the D-Backs broadcast team put up two videos. The first was Ray’s windup in a start before the streak started, and the second was his delivery since. Ray’s windup since the streak began has picked up quite a bit, giving him a certain rock-and-fire feel.
With his new, quicker pace, Robbie Ray is having quite a stretch on the mound, and it’s helping to establish the Arizona Diamondbacks as a potential threat in the National League.