Cleveland Indians: Is Brad Hand’s fastball back?

Cleveland Indians closer Brad Hand’s fastball was much improved in Cincinnati.

Yes, you might have previously read concerns regarding Cleveland Indians closer Brad Hand inside the Factory just about a week ago.

But in Cincinnati, as Hand closed out the Reds, the Tribe faithful got to see more of the Hand we’ve been used to getting dealt.

Prior to game No. 12, Hand’s fastball had been sitting around 89-91 miles per hour. He’d been so bad, more than a few us were praying Bieber would escape the eighth unscathed and James Karinchak would pitch the ninth.

Alas, Sandy Alomar didn’t stray from Terry Francona’s formula, sending out out Hand to finish the job in a must-win game.

Hand delivered, and his fastball had more get-up on it than it did in the second half of last season, and the early portion of this season.

After throwing his four-seamer at 91.7 miles per hour, he unloaded his next heater at 93.1, according to Baseball Savant. His final pitch of the game, a called strike three, was just a tick under 93 (92.6 mph).

Additionally, Hand showed the capability of throwing his slider for strikes. Too often, he throws the sweeping hook is that is nowhere near the zone. When Hand is pitching well, with 93 mph fastball and he’s able to find the zone with the breaking stuff, then he can get batters to swing at that stuff.

The second batter of the inning, Eugenio Suarez, took a called strike in the zone off a slider to begin his at bat. The fact Hand could get start off the count that way just tilted the entire momentum of the showdown in his favor.

He got Suarez, who hit 49 bombs a season ago, to foul off the next pitch (93.1 mph fastball), and then wasted three pitches in attempt to get the slugger to chase. He got him with a slider to finish the at-bat, which Suarez weakly put in play.

Hand has a lot more to prove before he makes everyone feel good about his appearances in this ninth, but this outing was good start.