St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright took to his Twitter account on Wednesday to provide fans with an unusually detailed explanation for his late-season struggles. Wainwright authored a five-tweet thread that touched on the mechanical deficiencies he experienced after being hit with a comebacker in late August.
"[After] that game my stride length got shorter by almost a foot. Timing was thrown," Wainwright tweeted. He added in another message that he "didn't stay diligent enough with my film work to catch it immediately," and that "what I was attributing to dead arm was an awful delivery." Wainwright closed his thread by apologizing to his fans and teammates and stating, "I owed an explanation … so there you go."
It can be debated whether Wainwright owed an explanation to anyone outside of the Cardinals clubhouse for his late-season performance. What's inarguable is that his thread provides rare insight into the challenges of pitching and staying consistent. It just goes to show how one slight alteration in the kinetic chain can mess up the whole operation.