It was a cool moment for me personally to have Rick Renteria confirm, without prompting, my theory for why Lucas Giolito’s 92 mph fastball had been effective beyond what his middling velocity would indicate. Though probably not as cool as it was for Giolito to lean on the pitch for seven innings of one-run ball in his season finale.



“‘Cause he’s got angle,” Renteria said. “Just talking about that with Coop [pitching coach Don Cooper] on the bench. He’s got angle, he’s got height. He’s got good angle so that creates, believe or not, some deception and he can ride it up out of the zone. And then he comes out from that angle with the breaking ball or his changeup. So the angle creates some pretty good deception.”



That angle provides optimism for Giolito’s fastball to continue to be effective despite diminished velocity from his peak, and he’s fully...