New pitch mix, newfound confidence for Williams

This story was excerpted from Tim Stebbins' Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CLEVELAND -- Not only did Gavin Williams deliver his best start of the season on Monday, but he also showed he may be on to something with a pitch mix that has been a work in progress over the past year.

Williams threw his cutter for the first time this season in the Guardians’ 6-4 win over the Yankees, alongside his four-seam fastball, curveball and sweeper. And, as he said after the outing, throwing the cutter "opened up everything” for him.

Williams threw 6 1/3 innings and held New York to two runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out eight -- a new season high.

“Having four pitches rather than three pitches helps out big time,” Williams said. “Being able to throw [the cutter] back door to a lefty and even down and away to a righty helps out. It opens up everything.”

Williams featured six pitches last season, and the cutter was his third-most used offering (12 percent), behind his four-seam fastball (51.3) and curveball (19.8). He has simplified his arsenal in the early going this season by almost exclusively throwing his four-seamer (54.8 percent), sweeper (24.7) and curveball (18.9).

In his bullpen session before Monday’s start, the Guardians’ coaching staff recommended he bring the cutter back. He only threw it five times against New York, but just having it in his bag and showing it to hitters gives them something else to account for in the batter’s box.

“When you can have another pitch to be able to put in the hitter’s mind,” catcher Bo Naylor said, “something that you can attack with and be able to hold through the times that the order rolls over, it just puts a little more pressure on them to find an approach to stick with. It worked well for us. That’s something that we're going to be able to use moving forward.”

Williams threw a 2-1 cutter to Yankees catcher Austin Wells in the fifth inning. The pitch spun inside, and Wells harmlessly foul tipped it into Naylor’s glove. It set up Williams’ next pitch: He threw Wells a curveball down and away, which he grounded into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

The curveball, which Williams threw 32 times on Monday, was another interesting wrinkle to his start. Its average velocity was 82.3 mph (with a max of 84.6), up from its season average of 81.7. Williams recorded 21 whiffs (a new career high), including six whiffs with the curve (one shy of his career-high).

“[It had a] lot of bite, good action,” Naylor said. “He was in-zone with it, and was able to expand with it as well. That’s a strength of his, so it just all came together really well paired with the fastball.”

Williams has the stuff to be an imposing starter for the Guardians. Monday’s performance against a good Yankees lineup could go a long way for him this season.

“It's a big confidence boost, not for just today, but the rest of the season,” Williams said. “I know my stuff plays a lot, so when I'm around the zone or in the zone, it's definitely a confidence boost.”