EVEN when he's pitching well, David Cone likes to tinker. He'll change his arm angle or release point, add a hesitation to his delivery. Anything to get an edge on opposing hitters.
Off to a horrid start this season, Cone made his latest alterations work, holding Toronto to three singles in seven scoreless innings as the New York Yankees beat the Blue Jays 6-0 yesterday (HK time).
'What I was doing wasn't working so I needed to try something new,' Cone said. 'My mechanics were all off.' Some slight adjustments in his delivery - moving from the extreme right of the pitching rubber to the left side, and swinging his arms before starting his delivery - appeared to do the trick for Cone (1-2), who lowered his ERA from 10.70 to 7.66.
'He made some adjustments in the bullpen,' manager Joe Torre said. 'Whether it's in his mind or actual, it obviously helped everything because he seemed comfortable. He was certainly in a great groove for us.' Cone, known for inventing pitches from various arm angles, threw twice between starts - one more than usual - moving his feet on Monday and adding the rocking motion on Wednesday.
'I hadn't seen someone do that in a long time,' pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said of the arm waving.
'He felt like it would help his timing a bit. Coney's a rhythm guy and this seemed to work.' After Cone allowed eight runs in three innings of an 8-2 loss in Toronto last weekend, critics wondered whether the tens of thousands of pitches had finally caught up with the 37-year-old right-hander.
But his teammates remained confident in Cone, despite his 2-7 record and 5.98 ERA in 17 regular-season starts since pitching a perfect game last July.