Cleveland Guardians pitcher Joey Cantillo focused on this pitch against the Houston Astros, and it worked.
Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has repeatedly stated that Joey Cantillo is at his best when he’s filling up the strike zone and attacking hitters.
Yes, all of that is true, but it’s also easier said than done, even for a big-league starter. Cantillo has faced some adversity over the last month.
At the end of May and into June, the left-hander really struggled with his command and had a stretch of starts where he gave up four or more earned runs.
On Saturday against the Houston Astros, Cantillo officially got his season back on track as he put together not only his best outing of the season, but arguably one of the best starts of his career.
Cantillo threw a season-high 8.0 innings, allowed one earned run, gave up four hits, issued one walk, and struck out nine hitters.
“That's exactly what we talked about; attacking the zone,” said Cleveland’s skipper.
“He was pounding the zone, he was ahead and getting weak contact, a lot of punch out, like curveball was something special.”
Jun 20, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Joey Cantillo (54) pitches against the Houston Astros in the first inning at Daikin Park. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn ImagesAs Vogt pointed out, it really was Cantillo’s curveball that was the key to his success.
Cantillo threw 44 curveballs against the Astros, which is the most in a game by any pitcher in MLB this season. The pitch alone had a whiff rate of 48 percent (13/27) as Astros hitters had little response to them.
Cantillo said after the game he was trying to do something a little bit different with his curveball in this start against Houston.
“We worked on throwing it hard and just not really being too fine with anything, but really just letting that pitch rip,” said Cantillo after the game. “It felt good. We threw a lot of them.”
Cantillo was trying to throw his curveball with more conviction and velocity, and the stats back that up, too. Coming into his outing against the Astros, this pitch has a yearly average of 79.5 mph. That average velocity against Houston was nearly 81 mph.
Cantillo was the one who executed the pitches, but Cleveland’s starter made sure to give his catcher, Patrick Bailey, credit for recognizing where and when to call it. Again, this game management is one of the reasons the Guardians traded for Bailey in the first place.
With Cantillo having so much success against the Astros by filling up the zone with curveballs, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not this becomes his game plan moving forward.
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