It seems like more and more I am seeing one inning that is just unstoppable when I'm pitching. Today I had only given up 1 run through 7 innings. My pitcher was rolling through the lineup but his energy bar was starting to get a bit low. I put someone up in the bullpen and then everything went haywire. 4 runs and 3 pitchers later I am now down in the 8th inning. They were hitting stuff that was even outside the strike zone. I have tried the mound visit and changing multiple pitchers, but it seems like nothing works for just that inning. Does anyone have any tips to avoid the big inning? Or at least to try and bring it under more control?
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Re: Stopping the big inning
Don't ask Matt Garza his advice!!!
For me....I mound visit.....replace as necessary and hope for the best.
Sometimes....it just is not going to go your way.
....and depending on the team(quality of pitchers really....I don't know what moves you've made)....it can be really difficult.
I tend to also use my pitchers who have the best combination of control and break.
M.K.
Knight165All gave some. Some gave all. 343 -
Re: Stopping the big inning
I believe it's all about strategy. I don't think this has ever been discussed, but maybe the game is coded where if you leave your starter in too long or put in the wrong reliever than the games are scripted to give a big inning? Idk, it actually sounds stupid as I say it, but who knows?Seattle Mariners|Seattle Seahawks
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Re: Stopping the big inning
Fatigue is a factor - pitches lose velocity and probably movement as well as location as a pitcher hits tired and eventually exhausted status.
Not to mention the confidence meters. As a pitcher gets pushed around, his confidence falls (both in pitches and overall), tending to cause things to continue to spiral out of control. It works both ways (i.e. you can do the same to the CPU pitchers), but I think it's overdone and it's slanted against the user (even with 0 consistency for the CPU, the user's pitchers will lose confidence much more sharply and regain confidence much more slowly than the CPU pitchers).
L/R match-ups can matter too, but that's more considering the splits of the hitters since pitchers don't have splits for some reason."Some people call it butterflies, but to him, it probably feels like pterodactyls in his stomach." --Plesac in MLB18Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
I don't think that's it. I gave Kuroda a good 3-0 lead in a solid third inning. Kuroda isn't a monster but I can pitch to contact and get some solid outings from him. The very next inning he gives up 5 runs.
I'm shortly after the ASB and going through a long stretch with no breaks. I couldn't afford to go to my BP so early. I stretch out 1 more inning. The only guy with enough stamina to push out solid innings was Phelps. Dude has been trash. I usually only put him in games I know I can't come back.
Down 2 in the 5th I give him the nod. He throws 4 solid innings for me and I come out with the W 6-5.
IMO the game is dynamic. At times you seem untouchable, and at times you just get out batted. Sometimes I throw a perfect pitch, but sometimes the CPU just has a perfect swing. Vice versa. Ever hit a homer on a pitch you KNOW you shouldn't have?
That's why there's 162 games.
Actually in the last week of the franchise, Gardner has hit two walk off HRs. He had no pop all year. Now he goes long twice in one week? If it was the CPU if be irate. But because it's me I'm fist pumping the W into my record.
Another thing I notice. Do you ever intentionally walk? Encarnacion has been rocking me all year. He's in the top 3 in BA, HR, RBI. Game 1 of a 3 set he basically wins the game for the Jays. I intentionally walk him the rest of the series and the Jays can't produce. He is like there rally man (for me) when I'm playing.
I will be implementing more intentionals as I progress to stop some of those big innings.5Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
Also, I know a lot of people don't like to use the warm up pitches, but it's a great way to build confidence on pitches you know you're going to need in x situation.
Watch what pitches you throw to who. You can't throw a low confidence pitch in a hitters count to a superstar.
If you're using the format to where the CPU calls the pitch, pay attention to what you throw. It's easy to just hit the button, catcher calls, you throw and you're not really paying attention to that confidence meter of the pitch. HR/XBH and the rally starts.5Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
Like eF...it's just the way it goes I believe...and......I think it's perception a lot of the time.
Remember the horrid outing where you are totally pissed off....while putting the times that the SP or pen put the fire out on the back burner.
It's easy to do that.
Last night in my second game of the evening....I had Niese going for the Mets.
He was pitching well....but the Mets couldn't make a 3-0 lead hold...and it was tied in the 8th. I brought in Ike Davis for a defensive sub in the 6th or 7th on a double switch(Niese was spent) and he wound up hitting a Grand Slam his next turn at bat.
Going into the ninth...with my pen depleted due to a long stretch and using 2 RP's already...I went with Edgin and the 7-3 lead. Seemed safe.
Edgin gave up a hit and 2 BB's...and I'm thinking....uh-oh...uh-OH!..here it comes!
Marte-Polanco and Cutch up with the bases loaded no outs.
Parnell(my CP....stop laughing
) was out of the picture...he had pitched the previous two games...(and he recovers terribly slow) and is shaky.....he's really just my CP in name at this point...I go with who's hot
A mound visit.....Marte pops out......a fly out to short LF(no tag) for Polanco....I bring in Mejia and he K's Cutch to end it.
Ask me a week from now about it...I won't remember...but if Polanco singled and Cutch homered!.....stuck in your head.
Now also keep in mind that bad teams...will have a lot more sticking!
M.K.
Knight165All gave some. Some gave all. 343Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
No, sadly, I have not (with Marlins, you don't get HR on pitches you SHOULD a lot of times LOL and the only way someone like Hechavarria (sp) is hitting a HR is on a pitch that's awful and he actually squared up on). Heck, Stanton is still batting under .230 (way under his real life self) though the power is slowly coming back (with pansy 360 ft HR, not like the 480 ft shot he hit this year and the frequent 400+ bombs he hits)
I agree, there's a lot a vagaries in the game, just like in the real game. There ARE mechanics in the game (if only by virtue of being a video game) at work, too, like the confidence, etc.
The only thing about IBBs is if my guy is struggling, I don't want to help the OBP of the team even more, especially if they have someone else that's very solid, too.
Like if someone like Chris Davis is followed by a 70/70 hitter - the next guy isn't Davis, but that's still a solid slasher with HR pop.
I don't know about putting more men on base with a pitcher that's already been knocked around and the confidence meters are at 1/4 or less, especially with Classic pitching."Some people call it butterflies, but to him, it probably feels like pterodactyls in his stomach." --Plesac in MLB18Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
Identify which pitches aren't working for you. I've been playing this game for 4 years now and this just clicked for me yesterday. I was pitching with Dillon Gee and I gave up 3 runs in the first inning. Damn, I thought. Another one of those games. But then I thought about it. I thought about all the pitches that missed out of the zone for balls, and the pitch that got hit over the wall for a 3-run-HR.
Every single one of those was a 2-seam fastball. All of them. Clearly, Gee just didn't have a good 2-seamer that night. I figured out a different way to approach at-bats where I never had to use the 2-seamer. I ended up retiring 14 straight batters after that, and went into the 8th inning with still only 3 runs allowed.
I even tested it throughout the game. In non-pressure situations (ie: pitcher at the plate), I would throw the 2-seamer again, just to see what happened. It continued to miss, and I couldn't get it to work at all.
But I did just fine without it, because I realized I had to stop forcing it.Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
It is hard to buy validity in that statement lol. I think we give too much credit into the CPU figuring out our sequences.
A lot of the things that happen are bad luck and random. My advice....avoid walking guys and stick with your pitches that have high confidence. Executing is more important than mixing up pitches IMO.
Some games they'll happen....maybe due to unlucky BABIP or the computer will just lay off everything.Comment
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"Some people call it butterflies, but to him, it probably feels like pterodactyls in his stomach." --Plesac in MLB18Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
That is 1 game, plus I am not saying only throw 1 pitch. I just meant to stick with it the majority of the time.
We tend to remember the significant and latest events in our lives. You aren't going to remember those boring games where you stuck with your fastball, went 6 innings, gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and had 5 K's...just an example.
I just don't think the CPU AI is that adaptable and they don't seem to use much sequences at all.
Then again...neither us of have much proof so it is all anecdotal evidence.Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
Yes, it was one game. Am I going to list every game where I've noticed it out of the 100+ I've played this year, let alone the hundreds last year? No.
Giving up 2 runs in 6 innings is not boring. That's a game I have a chance to win (or am winning).
And if the CPU AI doesn't adapt, then it wouldn't matter if I threw the fastball literally 100% of time, because it can't pick up on that, right? (because it can't adapt to what we're doing to it)
But I know the habits I fall into, especially with power arms. Especially at the start of an imminent "I'm about to pwn joo!" where the pitcher is just starting to get hit a little harder, but it hasn't "hit home" just yet.
I'll keep throwing power fastball sometimes to the point of 50-60% on a 4-pitch pitcher (I see the pitch break down in game and track my own pitching tendencies, started from the fact I throw too many on-purpose strikes and not enough on-purpose balls, so I wanted to give myself objective measures for seeing myself do it less and expanded it to pitch selection).
I did that with Taijuan Walker, was at about 65% when he was skating by with 2 Ks in 5 innings and 7 hits allowed but just one run. Should have been more runs allowed but got a DP and some lucky line drives at fielders.
When I made the adjustment and Walker starting throwing like a top prospect, the breakdown was 40% fastballs (still too much for my liking on a 4-pitch pitcher and I neglected one of his pitches, basically turning him into a 3-pitch pitcher).
Another reason I started tracking was Nate Jones. I traded for him in my Rays franchise and completely overused his ridiculous fastball. When I tracked, it was like 75% - and he has four pitches! WTF was I doing? LOL
No wonder he'd just have "those games". Probably should have had more of "those games" but got lucky. I was like, "he throwing 99-103, how are they turning on that stuff?"
When I basically forced myself to get his FB rate down to about 35%, suddenly I could run him out there tired and he'd still kick butt. By year two, he was a 2.25 WAR pitcher as a "combo reliever" (sometimes set-up, sometimes mid-reliever, sometimes closer, estimated his LI at 1.3).
He became the best reliever on my staff not named Jake McGee (who was my closer). Incidentally, I mixed McGee's pitches intuitively for whatever reason. I guess it was because I loved his slider and how he could work it away from RHB (McGee is a LHP) and then work his two types of fastballs.
I had to do it with Taylor "Groundball" Guerrieri too. I nicknamed him that because I would wear that 2-seamer out for groundballs and DPs (he blossomed in H/9 but was CRAP at getting K's, like a 30 or something lol). Had to remember to use his curve and splitter as well and still get his ground balls (got more, actually, because they'd roll over on his power curve (85 MPH) and splits low/out of the zone). He completely owned. He stayed constantly hot.
Games where I fell back into my bad habits were where he would struggle. Sometimes I got TOO into throwing his curve and falter that way too, or trying to establish that splitter or overuse it as a "change-up" and trying to start ABs with it to set up the fastball...only to notice I've done that the last 10 PAs, literally."Some people call it butterflies, but to him, it probably feels like pterodactyls in his stomach." --Plesac in MLB18Comment
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Re: Stopping the big inning
My post had absolutely nothing to do with the CPU figuring out sequences. Pitchers don't come to every game with the same pitches, at the same effectiveness. The approximate effectiveness of a pitch is determined when the pitcher enters the game. It can be changed (through the confidence meters), but it ain't easy.
There will be games where you have a great curveball, and games where you don't. This has nothing to do with the opposing team.
I'm saying to recognize not what the CPU has, but what you don't have.Comment
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