In his debut, the Phillies' new de facto No. 2 starter looked a lot like the pitcher who was supposed to be occupying that spot in 2015.
On a cold, wet Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park, Aaron Harang made a formidable Red Sox lineup look pedestrian for 6 1/3 innings, using pinpoint command, a smooth delivery and rapid pace that called to mind Cliff Lee.
Now, obviously, Lee is (was?) a much more accomplished and talented pitcher with uncanny command, but a lot of the skills Harang exhibited in his Phillies debut reminded of Lee, especially the pace and penchant for getting ahead in the count immediately.
Pablo Sandoval singled twice off Harang, but the rest of the Red Sox went 0 for 19 with a walk, eight strikeouts, eight flyouts and three groundouts.
Harang did what Cole Hamels couldn’t two days earlier -- hit spots and keep Boston’s power hitters off balance. Harang's stuff wasn’t overpowering, but he spotted his fastball brilliantly from the first inning on, striking out Dustin Pedroia looking on a low and away two-seam fastball and following it up with a 90 mph four-seamer right on the black of the outside corner to whiff Sandoval swinging.
“Harang was outstanding, very effortless, very smooth,” manager Ryne Sandberg told reporters after the game. “He was fun to watch tonight. He pinpointed his fastball and really got the defense off the field and into the dugout, which on a night like tonight was really big.”
Harang retired the first nine Red Sox in order, striking out six. He had all of his pitches working. After punching out Pedroia on the sinker and Sandoval with that outside fastball, he came back in the second inning and induced a swinging strikeout on a sharp 2-2 slider to Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez swung so hard his helmet almost came off. Mike Napoli, up next, was caught looking at a two-seamer that began just off the plate but broke back in.
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Watching Harang Wednesday night, it was easy to see why he found so much success in Atlanta last season.
Harang was a waiver wire pickup of the Braves in 2014, and all he did was give Atlanta 25 quality starts and a 3.57 ERA over 204 1/3 innings.
He seems to do his best work in cold weather, when hitters are still adjusting to the pace of regular-season play. Harang last April had a 0.85 ERA over his first five starts and held hitters to a .143 batting average. Watching from afar last season, it made little sense that his opponents mustered just nine hits in his first 25 1/3 innings after several poor years. But when you really see Harang’s best stuff at work, you begin to understand why he’s been able to soak up so many innings throughout his career.
A 14-year veteran, Harang has under his belt years of 234 innings, 231, 212 and 204. He’s thrown 170-plus innings seven different times for four different teams.
On a cold night, Harang kept a rapid pace on the mound and kept his fielders involved. He threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 22 batters he faced, and only once allowed a runner to reach scoring position.
Harang is not always going to dominate the way he did Wednesday night, but it was exactly the type of debut the Phillies wanted to see from him. It wasn’t just about the pitching line, it was about the way he attacked a deep and powerful lineup that featured threats from the right side and left side. Harang was able to spot all of his pitches -- mainly the fastball, sinker and slider -- to both sides of the plate, especially with two strikes, when it mattered most.
Those two-strike pitches were the highlight of Harang's outing. Too often in recent years we've seen Lee, who is just as reliant on pinpoint command to find success, unable to put a hitter away with two strikes, most of the time because he made too good of a pitch. On Wednesday night, Harang had no such problem.
It will be interesting to see how he follows this up next Monday against the Mets at CitiField, a ballpark that should allow him the luxury of missing a few spots and getting away with a few deep flyouts.
If there is one thing this Phillies team will need in 2015 it’s innings, and Harang in his debut provided a glimpse of how his smooth delivery may allow him to pitch deep into games and let rest a bullpen that is sure to be overworked.