Prior to a start in Miami last May, Diamondbacks lefty Robbie Ray was warming in the bullpen, struggling to hit his spots, when pitching coach Mike Butcher suggested a change.
“Butch was like, ‘Hey, just go out there and throw as hard as you can,’ ” Ray recalled. “That was probably one of the better games that I pitched all year. I left it all out there.”
It was also the sort of instructive experience that shaped the rest of Ray’s quasi-breakout year: For him, it was the beginning of the realization that he could put everything he had into every pitch and still have enough left in the tank to be effective deep into his outings.