MILWAUKEE — Felipe Vazquez has a 20-acre farm in Florida that requires his attention. The grass needs cut. A fence must be repaired after a few storms ripped through the area. Each item will be marked by his sister, Prescilla Vazquez Cosme, who is also his agent, on a to-do list at the conclusion of his first full season as the Pirates' closer.
He's already asked to take two days off before beginning that work. After all, Vazquez's sister gave him one task back in May that required tireless hours in the bullpen and altered the course of his season. Vazquez, 27, has converted 24 straight save opportunities, the longest active streak in the majors, capped by his high-wire ninth inning to close out a 3-2 win over the Brewers on Sunday at Miller Park
His 34 saves rank third in the National League, though his latest work included two home runs allowed. Yet, only a few months ago, on May 31 in St. Louis, he blew his fourth save in five tries with a walkoff grand slam. He was tipping his pitches. His electric fastball wasn't enough to overpower hitters. Immediately afterwards, he called his sister, who gave him one directive: relax.
"I think everyone goes through something like this," Vazquez told DKPittsburghSports.com. "Last year, the mentality for me this year was try to do the same thing I did last year. I came in with that same mentality, but it didn’t happen. You have to figure it out."
Vazquez's fastball is fooling hitters again. The same with his changeup and slider. He can't pinpoint exactly what's changed with his pitching. The results have been mostly remarkable, though. Aside from the consecutive saves streak, he also owns a 1.73 ERA and .212 opponents' batting average with 58 strikeouts to 12 walks in 41 2/3 innings since his last blown save.
He's been scored on just six times in his last 40 appearances and his 81 strikeouts rank second among NL left-handed relievers. Vazquez also can't pinpoint where his troubles began. His fastball was never firm at the season's outset. There was also self-induced pressure to meet the expectations attached to an offseason contract extension.
Vazquez, acquired from the Nationals at the trade deadline in 2016, signed a four-year contract with the Pirates in January after he posted a 0.89 WHIP with 21 saves in 75 1/3 innings last season. He was named the full-time closer at mid-season and emerged as one of the best in the NL, holding lefties to a .082 average and posting five multi-inning saves. However, he struggled with his delivery upon reporting to spring training this February and allowed four earned runs on opening day in Detroit.
All along, his bullpen coach, Euclides Rojas, saw a young pitcher struggling to adapt and potentially distracted off the field. Vazquez, formerly known as Rivero, chose to legally change his last name to take his sister's surname, a process that was finalized in April.
"It is tough to be 100 percent the whole season and he had some personal matters to take care of at the end of spring training," Rojas said. "I think that had a lot of influence on his performance in the month of April. He was changing his name and had those things in his mind. I’m sure that affected him. ... For a young guy like him, this is his first full year as a closer, it can be a little tougher. There were a lot of things we did with him."
Work also needed to be done. That four-run implosion in St. Louis was partially the result of him tipping his pitches, so he refined his setup on the mound, now holding the ball in his glove near his left hip. Additionally, he was relying too much on his fastball the first two months of the season.
He's since began throwing his slider and changeup more, even using the latter against left-handed hitters. His curveball's also been more effective than last season, including an increased whiff rate. However, his hard contact rate is up nearly 15 percent from last season, according to Statcast, and his changeup hasn't been as effective.
He's also struggled upon entering games, as displayed again Sunday. Jesus Aguilar and Domingo Santana hit back-to-back homers before Vazquez got three consecutive outs, including a swinging strikeout of Ryan Braun. Clint Hurdle called Vazquez's past three months "one of the best bouncebacks I’ve seen a closer make in a long time." Vazquez's response to that difficult May is perhaps one of the few positive developments surrounding this team as it sits at .500, 74-74, with 14 games remaining.
"As he told me coming off, that's why they nicknamed him ‘Nightmare’," Hurdle said. "Hey, good pitches, bad pitches, this team over there can hit them. ... That game gets away from a lot of closers. It didn't get away from our closer. Put a foot down right there and rolled right through it. He's got a slow heartbeat, and he doesn't let much affect him. He's a guy we needed out there in the ninth, and he showed up."
Vazquez didn't always possess those qualities. While starting in the minor leagues — which he did until reaching Triple-A in 2015 — Vazquez would allow one hit to spiral into an ugly outing. There were no coaches or teammates to provide much advice, either. So, he'd call his sister late at night.
It wasn't until Vazquez reached the majors with the Nationals in 2015 that he finally learned how to relax on the mound. Veterans and coaches were finally there to give advice. The art of pitching was a foreign concept until this season, though. Vazquez was able to get through April mostly unscathed based on pure stuff. His struggles the following month forced him to learn how to pitch. He's even implemented a quick pitch to catch hitters off-guard.
That was powerfully illustrated Wednesday afternoon in St. Louis, when he completed a two-inning save, capped by a strikeout of Matt Carpenter. Vazquez laughed when that last blown save was brought up. He insists he forgot all about it, and he'll forget about baseball altogether until that to-do list on the farm is complete.
"That’s the mentality you have to have," Vazquez said of a short memory. "You have to forget about it. If it comes into your mind you’re going to be thinking too much, and it’s not going to end up well."
1. Williams does it again.
Trevor Williams' resume in the second half is unlike any in the majors. He didn't allow a run in a start of at least six innings for a league-leading ninth time this season, now the most such starts by a Pirate since at least 1908, according to a stat culled by Pirates PR man Dan Hart. He's gone 7-2 with a 1.10 ERA in 11 starts since July 11, the lowest ERA in the majors during that span.
That's the lowest post-All-Star break ERA for the Pirates since at least 1933, beating a previous mark set by Zane Smith (1.30) in 1990. Williams, making his 29th start of the season, pitched six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts to two walks Sunday afternoon. He allowed only two hits, both doubles.
This was the second time he's faced the Brewers and chose to attack them differently, given the hitter-friendly ballpark:
Williams is now tied with Jameson Taillon for the team lead with 13 wins, giving the Pirates multiple 13-game winners for the first time since 1999 (Todd Ritchie and Jason Schmidt). And he's only 26 years old. He'll be back next season, along with Taillon and Joe Musgrove. The right-hander didn't want to make too much about his second half. He said he hasn't even reflected on it quite yet. Hurdle didn't celebrate the result, either. He's come to expect this from Williams.
”That’s what he does," Hurdle said. “He did today. His secondary pitches were more effective and got better, played more important roles as the game went on. ... He just keeps at it, and the conviction and the intent. The fight’s real."
2. Middle infield may be set.
Adam Frazier's struggling at the plate for the first time since returning to the majors. He went 0-for-4 in the series finale and is mired in an 0-for-20 slump. Still, he's batted .315 in his last 45 games. That, along with his sharp defense at second base, has shown the front office he's ready for a prominent role in 2019.
"Frazier has stepped up and shown that he’s ready to take the everyday opportunity at second base," Huntington told reporters before first pitch. Again, Kevin Newman started next to him, going 1 for 3 with a sacrifice fly and an RBI single to drive in an insurance run in the ninth inning, which made the difference in this game.
Newman's looked more comfortable at the plate in the past week, a sign he's finally becoming acclimated to the major leagues, which he explained afterwards. "The game's kind of slowing down," Newman said. "The game is becoming more the game instead of real fast and real big. It's going back to the basics, what I grew up playing."
The Pirates need more from the corner infielders, though. Colin Moran and Josh Bell both walked twice, but they haven't been run producers for much of the season. Corey Dickerson went 3 for 4 with two doubles, scoring twice, including the ninth inning. The core of this roster is in place. Now's the time for this group to show a rebound is possible in 2019.
3. Kang could be back.
The Pirates need a power-hitting right-handed bat, particularly at third base. Moran, a rookie, has only nine home runs in 132 games, and Huntington didn't sound convinced he's the solution — even next season. They need Jung Ho Kang. Kang, still rehabbing from left wrist surgery, could be ready in time to play in fall instructional league next month, and Huntington didn't rule out having the 31-year-old get a few at-bats in the majors this month.
"Starting to swing a bat again and hopefully get some at-bats here in Florida in the near future, and then we’ll see where we are," Huntington said. "So we’re keeping the door open. Is there a chance we can get a handful up here at the end of the year? We’ll keep that door open."
Kang, who will turn 32 in April, has a $5.5 million club option for 2019, though the Pirates will likely buy him out for $250,000 before trying to renegotiate a short-term, incentive-based contract. Kang hasn't played in the majors in two years, but he's an intriguing option for a team in desperate need of offense.
He hit 16 home runs with 62 RBIs and a .867 OPS in 103 games in 2016. The Pirates, though, have very little information to determine if he can still play. Kang played in only 16 minor league games, seven in Triple-A, before suffering the wrist injury in July.
"We like the upside of the player," Huntington said. "Now we just need to put a dollar figure to the attainability of that, the risk that we’re willing to take, the risk he’s willing to take, and does it make sense? We’ll see where that process plays out. ... Obviously to add a right-handed bat that can hit 25 to 30 home runs and play good defense, if we can get him back to that, that’s a really interesting player. But we also haven’t seen that player in two years. There’s a middle ground, hopefully, we’ll be able to find."