HOUSTON — There were two critical elements taken from the five shutout innings 23-year-old right-hander Jarred Cosart tossed at the Yankees in the Astros’ 3-1 victory Wednesday night: The fact that his 64.7 strike percentage was the highest of his 11 career starts and that nine of his 15 outs were recorded via ground balls.
Had he logged enough innings to qualify, Cosart would have finished third among American League starters with a 54.5 percent ground-ball rate in 2013. Cosart mitigated his control issues following his promotion last July by inducing ground balls at an exceptional rate, and even as he strives to throw more strikes and harness his curveball, recording ground-ball outs remains
critical to his continuing development.
“My goal is if I don’t strike someone out, I want to get a ground ball because it’s a lot harder for them to score runs the more ground balls you get,” Cosart said. “(Astros pitching coach Brent Strom) tells me all the time it’s hard to get lift on a fastball when it’s moving into hitters. I’ll try to be down in the zone and if I can be in the top three in the American League, I’ll take it.”
Given that he is armed with a mid-90s fastball, Cosart could one day average a strikeout per inning. However, the movement on his fastball combined with his developing curveball makes Cosart a candidate to rank among the league leaders in ground-ball rate this season.
“With some of the natural movement he has on his ball combined with his velocity, I think we’re going to see that more this year,” Astros catcher Jason Castro said. “He’s gotten more repeatable in his delivery and I think that’s going to solve the command issues he had last year.”