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OC Register: After inconsistent season, Angels reliever Ryan Tepera adds pitch to his repertoire


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ARLINGTON, Texas — Ryan Tepera was standing on the mound with baseball’s most dangerous hitter in the box. The Angels’ right-hander was looking for something different to try to retire Aaron Judge.

After Tepera threw a curveball that Judge deposited over the center field fence, he realized that wasn’t it.

But out of that moment late last month grew the experiment that has turned into what Tepera believes could be a game-changing addition to his repertoire.

Tepera started throwing a second slider, one that is slower and moves more.

“I’m happy with it,” Tepera said. “I’m refining it and using it as a new weapon.”

Tepera, 34, has made his career on his fastball and hard slider. He had a 3.48 ERA coming into this season, including a 2.79 mark last year that earned him a two-year $14 million deal with the Angels.

This season, though, has been a rollercoaster. Although the sum of his work is a respectable 3.96 ERA and 1.089 WHIP, there have been a handful of slumps and blowups that prompted him to look for something new.

“I’d say I just never really got in a groove,” Tepera said. “I think as a relief pitcher, you kind of get on a hot streak and you just kind of ride with it. I never felt like I got in that groove. I was kind of inconsistent all year.”

After the Aug. 29 game when Tepera gave up the homer to Judge – on one of his 12 curves all season – he and the Angels began looking for something to supplement his slider.

They wanted something slower.

With the help of pitching coach Matt Wise and the Angels’ analytical team, they came up with the sweeping slider. It’s thrown with a two-seam grip instead of a four-seam grip, and it comes in about 79-81 mph, which is about 4-5 mph slower than his normal slider. It also has more horizontal movement.

Tepera said he had fooled around with a pitch like that for his entire career, but in recent weeks he’s committed to refining it.

Tepera has thrown the pitch 21 times in his last four outings. It’s already netted him three strikeouts, including whiffing Seattle Mariners DH Carlos Santana swinging from the left side on Sunday. He also struck out right-hander Mitch Haniger on the pitch in the same inning. He’s allowed three hits on the pitch, but none of them were hit harder than 85 mph.

When he struck out Santana, he fell behind 3-and-1. He got him swinging at the harder slider and then got him on the slower slider for a strikeout.

“I think it’s a good combination,” Tepera said. “I made my career on being fastball-slider, and it’s always been a hard slider. I’ve never had anything slow enough to kind of get the batters off of everything that’s hard. They can kind of just sit hard whether it’s a slider or a fastball. Absolutely in the offseason, I’m gonna look into it. Just kind of keep that feel and keep throwing it. I think it’ll be a big weapon.”

NOTES

Third baseman Anthony Rendon (wrist surgery) continues to work out in hopes of getting activated and serving his five-game suspension before the end of the season. Rendon has taken batting practice on the field and faced velocity from a pitching machine, but he still hasn’t faced live pitching. The Angels would not be able to activate Rendon simply to serve the suspension. Major League Baseball must be convinced that he’s actually healthy enough to play. …

Infielder David Fletcher (bruised hand) still has not been able to swing a bat. Fletcher is not with the team on this trip. He is eligible to come off the injured list at the start of the homestand, on Tuesday. …

The Angels will have Shohei Ohtani, Reid Detmers and José Suarez pitch over the weekend in Minnesota, in that order.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP Michael Lorenzen, 7-6, 4.74) at Rangers (LHP Martin Perez, 12-6, 2.84), Thursday, 11:05 a.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

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11 minutes ago, Trendon said:

@Jeff Fletcher did you discuss Tepera’s declining fastball velocity when you spoke with him?

It has dropped 0.7 mph, and I wonder if that has attributed to his struggles this season. Also, is that velocity drop just a product of age, and something he won’t be able get back?

No, I didn't. That's a pretty small decline and he's almost 35, so I'd say it's to be expected.

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