Manny Machado had a great reaction after being struck out by Trevor Bauer on Saturday night.
Machado has a history of dominating Bauer when they face each other. Entering Saturday, Machado was 12/19 in his career against Bauer with two doubles and four home runs. Yes, Machado had a 2.064 career OPS against Bauer. That is called “owning” a pitcher.
Well, on Saturday, Bauer tried to change things. He threw exclusively sliders against Machado and got him out all three times they faced each other. In the third at-bat, Bauer had Machado 2-2 and threw just a perfect slider that painted the outside corner.
Machado recognized what a good pitch it was and showed his respect to Bauer. He gave the ace pitcher a few nods and smiles, tipping his cap to the pitcher.
I do now. pic.twitter.com/o0gdiGMRaG https://t.co/PDodZnx6vM
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) April 25, 2021
When you’ve had as much success as Machado has against Bauer, you can feel comfortable tipping the cap to the man for finally getting the best of you.
The question is, will this be Bauer’s strategy against Machado moving forward? You have to wonder how long an all-slider approach will work. At least Bauer doesn’t have a reason to fear Machado as much as he used to.
