KC’s Chris Young Versus Three Boston Batters

Chris Young faced three batters in the sixth inning of last Friday’s game at Fenway Park. Pitching in relief of starter Ian Kennedy, the Royals right-hander came on with one out, a runner on second base, and Kansas City leading the hometown Red Sox 5-1. He allowed a run-scoring single to Dustin Pedroia, then retired Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz to end the inning.

Two days later, Young talked about the at-bats, the role of luck, and how his pitching approach is influenced by a home run he gave up in 2005.

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Young on facing Pedroia: “A lot of variables go into it, but I’m big on looking at the reports. With Pedroia’s numbers off fastballs, and what he does against sliders, in the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Alright, I probably need to get him out with a slider.’ The fastball he covers pretty well. If I do throw a fastball, it’s got to be in a specific location.

“I went fastball away for strike one. Then I went fastball away again. It leaked middle, but he fouled it off. I threw a slider in the dirt either before that pitch or after that pitch. Either way, I went fastball on 1-2 and he got a base hit to left field for an RBI. I was trying to go away and again it leaked back.

“Pedroia is a high-ball hitter, but I’m not afraid to throw it up there to him. It just has to be higher than high. You have to locate. Like I said, the pitch leaked back over the plate and into a hitting zone for him. It needed to either be on the corner, away, or maybe in off the plate. He’s a great hitter — he’s also locked in — and he hit it.

“I think the height of the pitch was fine. Had it been higher, he probably would have laid off. It was also 90-91 mph, so it was one of my better bullets. But if a pitch isn’t located, velocity doesn’t matter. These guys will turn it around.

“Reports can be somewhat deceiving at times. Take Brandon Moss, for example. He absolutely crushes me. His chart shows that he’s an extreme low-ball hitter — similar to Travis Shaw here in Boston — but for whatever reason, against me he does damage on pitches that, according to his heat zones, he doesn’t hit well. The ball that I would throw at his belly button — a pretty good place to throw him — he crushes against me. High has to become higher to him, just like with Pedroia.”

On facing Bogaerts and Ortiz: “I can’t remember the exact sequence to Bogaerts, but he grounded out to short on a slider. His numbers on fastballs are really good. Having just come into the game and not having a great feel for my command yet, I stuck with sliders. That brought up Ortiz and I think I threw him four sliders. The first one was for a strike, and the other three were trying to go back foot. He swung at some of them and missed. (Ortiz struck out.)

“There was a fastball to Bogaerts, but none to Ortiz. Once I got ahead of him, I just kept trying to bury sliders. If I was going to get beat, it was going to be with what is maybe my best pitch, and his… I was playing the odds with what is statistically the best pitch to throw him.

“I’m not a huge believer in the history I have against a hitter. A lot of it comes down to execution that day. We play these guys twice a year, so I might see them six at-bats at most. If I’m relieving, not even that many. How are they hitting at the time?

“Say a guy is in a zone, like Pedroia is right now. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you throw. He’s so locked in that he’s going to hit anything. It goes the opposite way, too. If a guy is in a slump — he’s struggling — you might make a mistake right down the middle and he swings and misses or pops it up. His timing is slightly off and he’s not feeling it.

“Bogaerts hit a hard ground ball for an out, and on a different day it’s maybe off the wall. It actually wasn’t a bad pitch — it wasn’t poorly executed — but even though he hasn’t been swinging as well as usual lately, he’s still a really good hitter. I went slider in part because he slugs better against fastballs than he does against offspeed.”

On avoiding danger zones: “My rookie year, I was pitching for Texas and we were playing Seattle in Arlington. We were tied 1-1 in the eighth inning and Ichiro was up. I threw him a fastball in, and he was ready for it. He hit it into the right-field bleachers.

“That was a great lesson for me. At that point in the game, there was one place he could really beat me. Had I pitched him away, he probably gets a single to left field — maybe a double — but I wouldn’t have lost the game on one pitch. There are situations where you have to understand where you can get beat, and where you can’t get beat. It’s the same with pitching to lineups. Some match-ups are more favorable than others, and you don’t want certain guys to beat you.

“Ortiz’s power zones are everywhere. He’s homered off me when the ball has been down, and he’s homered off me when the ball has been up. Again, some of it is the timing of when you’re facing someone. Of course, Ortiz is locked in more than most guys. He’s a great hitter. Even so, some days he fouls a pitch off and other days he hits it for a home run. There’s that element of luck, but at the same time, there’s less margin for error against a guy like that. At times you have to be almost perfect.”