Luckily I got to catch Heredia's final start tonight, which happened to be the last Spikes home game of the 2012 season. Coming into tonight's outing, he had just come off a shaky month of August that was by far his worst month as a professional. During his five starts in August, Heredia threw 23 innings while allowing 20 hits, 12 earned runs, and posting a lackluster 13:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
One thing I did pay attention to from the get-go was his "supposed" amped up velocity on his fastball. Reports at the beginning of the season said Heredia grew a few inches and increased his fastball velocity in the off-season and was sitting in the mid 90's consistently and could hit the high 90's. But the highest I had him on record for tonight was 91 MPH twice and consistently sitting at 87-89. I am not sure about the reputation of how cold the radar guns are at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park (the home of the Spikes and Penn State Baseball). Maybe it was because it was his final start of the season and his arm might be burned out. We do have to consider the fact Heredia is still a spring chicken at the ripe age of 18 years old and he doubled his innings pitched. In 2011 for the GCL Pirates, Heredia only 30.1 innings in 12 games in contrast to his 66.1 in 14 games for State College this season.
Enough of that. Lets get to good stuff, eh? With the expectations of his new-found gas all in my mind, I was surprised to see the radar gun flash on the right field PNC Park-esuqe wall to start the game. First pitch: a high and in 89 MPH ball against scrappy Mahoning Valley first baseman Erik Gonzalez. Throughout the rest of the at-bat, Heredia moved throughout the zone to adjust to Gonzalez's battle at the plate as he fouled off three straight. Then Heredia finally got Gonzalez to chase on a picture perfect "pitchers pitch" (SAY THAT FIVE TIMES STRAIGHT!), an 81 MPH ball off the outer black with slider type movement, to notch his first strikeout of the night. Against his next better, Heredia got center field Hunter Jones to line out to Spikes right fielder Jesus Vazquez on a ball in the middle of the zone on the outer third. The Scrappers three hole hitter, shortstop Dorssys Paulino, witnessed Heredia flash a nice 80 MPH change up against him that just missed the outer half of the zone. Later in the at-bat, Heredia rared back with a 90 MPH fastball to get Paulino swinging for his second strikeout on the night. At the end of the first, Heredia threw 13 pitches with eight of them being strikes.
In the second, Heredia had to grind it out right from the start. He walked the lead off hitter Logan Vick on four straight balls, all fastballs at 87, 86, 88 and 87 MPH, respectively. Then he continued to miss high with his fastball and not find the zone as he threw his fifth straight ball to Mahoning Valley right fielder Andrew Campbell. You could definitely tell Heredia was a little off mechanically as he was not bending his back and finishing low. But he gutted it out and got Campbell to fly out to shortstop Chris Diaz. Then, in probably his best overall at-bat of the game, Heredia attacked Jeremy Lucas with pinpoint fastball location on the low and outside corner for a 88 MPH first-pitch strike. To counter with the fastball, he went back to the outer half and got Lucas to chase two 78 MPH sliders in the dirt and notch his third strikeout in three pitches. To end the third, Heredia got behind 2-0 against Jorge Martinez but got him to chase an 88 MPH fastball in on the hands for the good old BROKEN BAT GROUNDOUT to second. It was clear that his off speed stuff, specifically the slider in the high 70's, was looking great tonight with batters looking completely out of balance. At the end of two, Heredia threw 27 pitches (12 balls, 15 strikes).
The third inning was by far his most efficient of night and it just so happened to be the Samuel Gonzalez show as he recorded all three outs himself. Heredia started off Mitch Nilsson with an 86 MPH fastball right down the middle (Fun fact: Heredia started off ten of his 18 hitters with first pitch strikes). Then he got the switch-hitting Nilsson to roll over to the first baseman Gonzalez on an 83 MPH changeup that was left a little up in the zone. But no harm, eh? Robel Garcia then got Heredia to fall behind 2-0 on two high 90 MPH fastballs but eventually joined teammate Mitch Nilsson on the bench and grounded out to first. Leadoff hitter Erik Gonzalez wasted no time in his second crack against the Mexican phenom and lined out to first base on a first pitch 87 MPH fastball on the low outside corner. At the end of his third inning of work: 34 pitches (14 balls, 20 strikes) with a NO-HITTER ALERT!
Now holding a 2-0 lead, Heredia had his most difficult inning of the night in the fourth, which was not saying too much. Hunter Jones led off the four with his mind clearly fixated on bunting for a base hit to actually get a runner on. He bunted two 87 MPH fastballs foul on the low outer half and was not successful. Luckily, the dominance of Heredia's slider and changeup location tonight got Jones to roll over to third on a nice 2-2 slider way out of the zone. After 10 batters and 43 pitches, Heredia finally gave up his first hit of the night, a line drive base hit off the bat of Dorssys Paulino. But he managed to quickly gain his composure back to get Logan Vick to roll over to first base on a first pitch changeup and then get Andrew Campbell to go down looking on a perfect 90 MPH fastball on the outside black. Since he worked from the stretch most of the fourth, I did notice Heredia looked a lot better when it came to keeping the ball down in the zone consistently. At the end of his fourth inning of work: 49 pitches (18 balls, 28 strikes).
In his final inning, Heredia definitely was losing velocity on his fastball and looked tired as he hung a 1-1 78 MPH slider to Jeremy Lucas for a double to the right center gap. He looked as if he was running on "E" out as he sat between 82-84 with his fastball and was leaving pitches in the middle of the zone. Against the second hitter in the fifth, Heredia fell behind Jorge Martinez 2-0 until getting him to ground out on a middle-middle 84 MPH fastball. Then he used that giant frame of his to rare back with 91 MPH gas up and in on a 2-2 pitch to get Mitch Nilsson swinging. To end the fairytale season of one young Mexican phenom, Robel Garcia hacked at the first pitch he saw and flied out to right field.
In summation, Heredia finished his night going five scoreless innings only allowing two hits and walking one while striking out five to notch his 4th win of the season. He threw 61 total pitches (22 balls, 33 strikes). When he seemed to show any chinks in his armor, his battled back and got out of any problems. If he pitches in State College again in the 2013 season or in West Virginia with the Power, GO OUT AND SEE HIM PITCH if you get the chance. Just his sheer size out on the mound is entertainment in itself. But getting the opportunity to see one of the top young pitching prospects in all of baseball is such a treat. Add Heredia's great season with Cole and Taillon's, the Pirates continues to shine ever so brightly! THE SUN IS SHINING EVERYDAY!!! To quote my favorite band the Foo Fighters, "one of these days their bombs will drop and silence everything".
For those that are curious, he played most of the season at only 17 years old. His final statistics for the 2012 season with the State College Spikes were: 66.1 innings pitched, 4-2 record, 2.71 ERA, 53 hits, 20 earned runs, 2 home runs allowed, 20 walks, 40 strikeouts.
Now from a non-baseball standpoint, Heredia might be the nicest person I have ever met. He took the time to sign EVERY SINGLE ITEM given to him by fans. Post game during the fireworks he was tossed everything from programs, bats, gloves, baseballs, among many others. He smiles all of the time and puts out his hand to shake yours even if you do not acknowledge his kind gesture towards you. He is a very soft spoken and down to earth kid. The one thing that did surprise me was his clarity speaking English. I personally expected his English to still be a little spotty since he has only been in the United States for two years now. If I had to rate his English from one to ten (one being lowest and ten the highest) it would be roughly a seven. The highlight of my night...during the post game fireworks show (yes, a PNC Park favorite!) I had the privilege to get my picture taken with Heredia (shown above) and he was so nice that he gave me an official New York-Penn League ball and autographed it for me. What a nice guy, right? To top it off, he gave me one of his only bats while I was waiting in the parking lot for some post game quotes from him.