Seattle — Alex Lange isn’t one to duck and cover. He takes things on directly, the good, the bad and the unsettling.
“I’ve been struggling,” he said, sitting in front of his locker Saturday. “I’ve been pretty terrible the last month and a half.”
The thing is, though, the two-plus months before that, he was lights-out. That’s what makes this current stretch so baffling. In his first 24 games, he won three and saved 10 (out of 11 chances), yielding only three earned runs in 24.1 innings with 34 strikeouts.
Even now, in the throes of one of the toughest stretches of his still young career, he’s holding hitters to sub-.200 batting average with all three of his pitches.
So what happened? A 1-0 hanging curveball to White Sox slugger Jake Burger on June 4 happened. Burger sent that sucker deep into the seats at Guaranteed Rate Field, a walk-off grand slam. It remains the only home run hit off his curveball by a right-handed batter this season.
It was a stunning blow and Lange seemingly hasn’t fully recovered. He’s allowed 11 earned runs in 13 innings since then and blown two of six save opportunities.
“He feels every mistake that he makes over the plate is getting hit,” manager AJ Hinch said after Lange’s laborious, 29-pitch save Friday night. “And every time he sprays it they are drawing walks. He’s carrying some stress with him. I know he holds himself to a high standard and he expects to be perfect.
“When he does get into leverage (counts), he creates a ton of swing and miss and a ton of stress on the other side.”
Falling behind hitters is at the crux of the issue. His 15% walk rate is untenable. He walked 12 and hit two batters in the last 13 innings. Holding on to a one-run lead Friday, he walked No. 9 hitter Dylan Moore and leadoff hitter J.P. Crawford with two outs.
That forced a confrontation with All-Star Julio Rodriguez, which he won, freezing him with an elevated breaking ball.
Chase and whiff are Lange’s lifeblood. He has a 31% chase rate and a 41% swing-and-miss rate. But hitters recently have adopted more of a take-first approach, forcing Lange into the strike zone.
“I’m still trying to go out and attack guys and execute,” Lange said. “I need to clean it up and be sharper. I’m trying to fill up the zone.”
He was asked there was a mechanical issue he was dealing with.
“If I knew I wouldn’t be going through this,” he said. “I feel good in the zone. I’m encouraged that my misses are getting tighter. I’m not spraying it as much. I’m just trying to ride out the storm. I want to be right for these guys.
“They work too hard to give the wins away in the ninth inning.”
When Lange gets behind in counts, he’s gone to his sinker more often than normal. His sinker, which he throws between 95 and 97 mph, is a good pitch. But if hitters are eliminating his breaking ball and sitting on the sinker, especially in a hitter’s count — advantage hitter.
The changeup is also a good pitch for Lange, but he’s only throwing it 9% of the time. Hitters are 1 for 6 against it with four strikeouts.
No one is suggesting Lange use his breaking ball less. That would be foolish considering opponents are 14 for 83 (.169) against it, with 39 strikeouts and a 51% whiff rate. But making the hitters to honor all three pitches would be helpful.
“If you can land strike one, it opens the whole at-bat for every hitter,” Lange said. “The different between 0-1 and 1-0 is like 250 points (in the batting average). It’s not rocket science. It comes down to executing. I’ve got to be better. No excuses.
“Keep working, keep grinding and keep getting better. The hitters have made an adjustment. It’s time for me to make mine and get back right.”
Hinch, as you would expect, seems more than willing to ride out the storm with Lange.
“We have a lot of trust in him,” he said. “His emotions are being challenged right now. He wants to be the guy at the end. He wants to carry the burden of the ninth inning. We just have to get him going in the right direction.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky