Who says you have to throw hard?
Not Austin Slater, that’s for sure. The Yankees outfielder took the mound in relief of Luke Weaver in the top of the ninth inning on Wednesday night with New York trailing the Tigers by 10 in their eventual 11-1 defeat.
Slater was effective, working around a Dillon Dingler single to get the final two outs of the frame. And he did it by unleashing … the slowest pitches delivered by a Yankee that Statcast has ever tracked (since 2015).
The first two pitches Javier Báez saw from Slater each registered at 36.4 mph. The first floated in there for a called strike. The second was a ball. Báez grounded to short on the next pitch, which José Caballero collected and went the short way to second for the forceout to end the inning.
It wasn’t the first time Slater had taken the mound in a Major League game -- on Aug. 29, 2021, he tossed a third of an inning for the Giants against the Braves in Atlanta.
Slater must have been feeling pretty good going back to the home dugout, as he led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to right field that had an exit velocity of 104.4 mph.
But don’t let the sharp single fool you -- Slater is a soft-tossing right-hander with a pristine 0.00 ERA.