J.J. Hoover's gone from getting lit up to lights out

The simplest way to state how good Reds reliever J.J. Hoover has been this season is this: He's been a lot better than Aroldis Chapman.

Hoover doesn't rush the ball up there at 103 mph like Chapman does. Hoover doesn't strike out a ton of batters like Chapman does. And Hoover doesn't pitch the ninth in save situations like Chapman does.

But Hoover, the 27-year-old right-hander, has put up a long string of zeros since late April.

He went into Monday's off day 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA. He has an active 13-appearance scoreless streak. He hasn't allowed an earned run since April 21. He gave up four runs and only recorded one out that day in a 16-10 win in Milwaukee. Those account for nearly all of his ERA. In his other 31 appearances, his ERA is 0.29.

Hoover's numbers would be remarkable for a guy coming off a great or even a good year. Hoover, suffice it to say, is not coming off a good year. He went 1-10 last year with a 4.88 ERA. The 10 losses came in succession, a club record for a reliever.

After Hoover went 1-3 with a 9.72 ERA in April, he became the No. 1 target of the Twitter crowd. They wanted him DFA'd, released or something a lot worse.

So what's the difference this year?

"I'm executing more pitches," Hoover said. "I'm keeping it out of the middle of the plate. That's honestly the key to it."

Hoover is a quiet and humble guy, but he admits the bad start got to him last year.

"I put pressure on myself and it kind of just snowballed," he said. "I prayed a lot this offseason. I got back to using God's talent. He blessed me with a lot of talent. I've been able to go out and play the game. It's been a lot of fun this year and being able to go out and play baseball."

Reds manager Bryan Price saw early struggles weighing on Hoover.

"His numbers were so far removed from what he was used to that it was hard to reel his season back in," Price said. "When you go out and look and your ERA is in the 5s or 6s, it's tough."

Price gave credit to pitching coach Jeff Pico and bullpen coach Mack Jenkins for working with Hoover on pitch selection.

"I think they did a really good job on the things that he did well last year and the things that didn't go well," Price said. "He was at 50 percent fastball command. His first-pitch strike percentage was extremely low.

"He was throwing mostly to one side of the plate with his fastball. That was away to both lefties and righties. I think he got into habits where he would overexpose his curveball. He was making a lot of elevation mistakes. The hitters were on him."

That's the one glaring number that stands out with Hoover. He has not allowed a home run in 31 1/3 innings this year. Last year, he allowed 13 in 62 2/3 innings.

The other numbers that jump out are Hoover's ground-ball and fly-ball rate. According to fangraphs.com, his ground-ball rate has gone from 28.5 percent to 48.1 percent from last year to this year. His fly-ball rate has dropped from 52.7 percent to 30.9 percent.

Hoover's throwing about the same number of fastballs. His fastball velocity is virtually the same (93 mph). He's striking out fewer hitters — 6.32 per nine innings, compared to 10.77 last year.

But his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) against is down from .277 to .172. That means two things: Hoover's had some good luck, and hitters aren't making as much hard contact.

It's easy to imagine the Reds' season being a lot different if Hoover had been in the eighth-inning role all year. Since he was moved there, the bullpen has stabilized.

But it's sort of the chicken-and-egg thing: Would Hoover have gotten on this kind of roll if he had been pitching in the eighth from the beginning?

Price deliberately brought him along slowly to build his confidence.

"He's a strong kid," Price said. "We knew for us to be good this year, Hoov had to be better. He's answered the bell big time. But I didn't pitch him in any high-leverage situations for a month plus. He was just a guy who was going to come in and try to get his mojo back. He's done that to such an extent that he's a lock to pitch the eighth inning when he's healthy and fresh."

Hoover was confident that this year would be different. He put up 2.05 and 2.86 ERAs in his first two years with the Reds.

"I don't think (low-leverage role) played a big part," Hoover said. "I had a really good offseason. I got everything I wanted to accomplish done this offseason. I took all of that into spring training. I thought I had a really good spring training.

"Last year was one year. I've had success up here before. I know I can do it."