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From Pine Tar Press:
So this is one of those games where the two pitchers could not be any different from each other. Fernandez is a big, right-handed flame thrower. Bruce Chen is a lefty and his fastball averages about 85 MPH. Fernandez is 21. Bruce Chen is definitely not. This one should be interesting.
Three things to watch for against Fernandez:
Like Koehler, Fernandez relies mostly on a fastball and a curve, but unlike Koehler, both pitches are big time plus pitches. The fastball averages nearly 96 MPH and the curve can get big and sits in about the low 80s.
Fernandez gets a lot of swings and misses to make up for this, but he’s been hit hard at times and has been a bit fortunate in terms of balls in play. He’s certainly a very tough pitcher, but a team like the Royals could actually be a bad matchup for him because they do a pretty decent job on fastballs and the pitch they struggle with the most isn’t really featured by Fernandez.
No pitch he throws results in much trouble for him, but he’s gotten hit the hardest on his sinker, so we’ll see if the shorter grass at Kauffman Stadium gives him any trouble in that regard.
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