ST. LOUIS — That changeup, the very leisurely one, is “La Mariposa.” “The Butterfly.” It travels from Aníbal Sánchez’s hand to, on this Friday night in the National League Championship Series, Yan Gomes’ mitt with the ardor of a child banished to his room.
This is the pitch that garners the love, for it is different. In a high-fastball, bounced breaking-ball world, Sánchez’s happily flitting changeup is a pitcher on the far end of his imagination while on the leading edge of his courage.
It shuffles down the hallway, looks back over its shoulder one final time, sleeve-wipes a tear from its eye, and in resignation heaves itself the last 20 feet, setting up the next two or three or four pitches.