A few weeks ago, after a particularly strong outing for Pat Overholt, I noted that his success is basically tied to being able to get groundouts, as he has been home run prone in the past, and as a starter, he’d have to really focus on pitching at the bottom of the strike zone to be effective. Last night, Pat got a lesson about not keeping the ball on the ground, to the tune of 7 ER. Here is the only stat you need to know

2 groundball outs, 8 fly ball outs.

He gave up 3 home runs in the game, 2 of them to top prospect Jay Bruce. In a 4 start stretch from April 5th through April 21st, Overholt had gotten 37 ground balls to only 13 fly ball outs, and he was largely successful in those starts. In the start prior to last night’s, he got 9 ground balls to 7 fly balls, struggled with his command (5 walks), but managed to avoid major damage, allowing only 1 ER in 6.2 IP. Last night, however, he wasn’t so lucky.