Lilliquist described this past weekend in San Diego how Maness’ right hand as drifted to the side of the ball instead of remaining on top of it and driving it down and to the strike zone. The result has been more and more side-to-side movement on the fastball and now the downward spike that resulted in so many groundballs when Maness first reached the majors.

Maness described his hand as “pushing” the ball, not snapping it.

That’s not unusual for a pitcher trying to invent movement on a pitch he once could trust to just have it naturally.

“I don’t think it’s confidence,” Lilliquist said. “It’s him trying to make the sinker sink instead of trusting his hand – that putting it behind the ball will give him downward sink instead of the side-to-side movement.”

Maness and Wainwright spotted how the reliever is releasing his front shoulder sooner than in the past, and that his right arm is then dragging behind on his delivery. That too would explain the flattening out of his hand as a rushed delivery leads to a lower arm slot and more of a slinging action. All of his pitches have dropped about 2 mph from his career average. His fastball is sitting at 87.5 mph this season, off of 89.9 mph. His slider is averaging 87.2 mph, down from 89.6 mph, and his cutter is down to 77.8 mph from 79.2 mph.