When Dillon Maples is on, he’s so right he’s wrong. That was the case Monday afternoon, when he struck out three Astros with no walks over 1.1 innings of work. He threw 29 pitches in the effort, only two of which were put in play.
Eight of his offerings were fouled off and three drew whiffs, but the seven called strikes — five on the slider — were perhaps most indicative of how good he was. The slider looks like it’s going to hit righties in the hip before somehow defying physics to split the plate.