Ex-Albany worker accused of stealing $138,000 for home renovation.ShopRite stores to close across Capital Region.The more varied combination creates more guesswork for hitters. He's also throwing his slider more than ever (28 percent), while his two-seamer usage is down to 50.1 percent from 69.2 percent in 2016. His four-seam fastball usage, according to FanGraphs, is up to 16.8 percent this season from 5.2 percent last season. Repertoire-wise, Albers said he's thrown his four-seam fastball up in the zone more, especially against lefties. He moved that set position a little higher to around his chest to eliminate some movement, which helped create a consistent release point. I still felt like I could be successful.'Īlbers said he made one minor adjustment over the winter: Last season, he was coming set with his hands around the belt. 'It was just missing over the plate and trying to almost make up for a lost season toward the end and not really pitching. 'I think my stuff was still good last year,' said Albers, who has the most career relief outings in baseball without pitching in the playoffs. The performance left him without a big league contract offer. He finally logged a full slate last season, and, at age 33, compiled a career-worst 6.31 ERA in 58 outings. He posted a 1.21 ERA for the Chicago White Sox in 2015, but a fractured finger, which he sustained policing a benches-clearing brawl, sidelined him for nearly three months and limited him to 30 games. He didn't pitch in an Astros uniform again. Three months later, he was transferred to the 60-day DL. He allowed a run across 10 innings before he was placed on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder tendinitis on April 25. Then his career hit a pothole with the Houston Astros in 2014. He had a 2.39 ERA in 63 appearances with the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012, which he followed with a 3.14 ERA in 56 games for the Cleveland Indians in 2013. Success at this level is not foreign to Albers - it can't be for someone who's pitched into his mid-30s. He's a three-pitch guy making quality pitch after quality pitch.' He's that kind of guy and he's easy to root for. Nicest guy in the world, but he'll tear your heart out. 'Number one, the person, he's a tremendous person,' Nationals pitching coach Mike Maddux said. No pitcher in history has ever had more relief appearances without one. On May 6 against the Philadelphia Phillies, Albers recorded his first career save in his 461st relief appearance.

His 0.894 WHIP and 3.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio are also career bests.

He's striking out a career-high 9.7 hitters and allowing a career-low 5.4 hits per nine innings. That's the ninth-lowest mark in baseball among qualified relievers and second-lowest on the Nationals behind Ryan Madson's 1.38 ERA with Washington. If they had such an award, he might be the find of the year in baseball.'Īlbers hasn't allowed a run in his past 14 outings, dropping his ERA to a skinny 1.66. 'You got to look at it as he has a golden arm and a good athlete. 'You got to look past how he looks,' Baker said. He's pitched in every imaginable on-field situation, from middle relief to the ninth, and he's recently pitched through unimaginable off-field stress as his son and pregnant wife withstood Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Albers's hometown.Īnd he's looked the same throughout it - like someone who doesn't belong on a baseball field, that is, until he starts slinging 94 mph sinkers past hitters. By the end of April, he was the only consistently reliable reliever Baker could turn to until the club's obligatory bullpen overhaul in July. The performance didn't secure him a spot on the Opening Day roster, but the jovial Albers was called up from the minors within a week. Albers, a 34-year-old nonroster invite, the kind of veteran long-shot reliever the Nationals bring in by the half dozen every year, then proceeded to toss 11 scoreless innings in the Grapefruit League.

Baker later pulled the book on the thickset right-handed reliever and realized Albers was the same size he'd been listed at for years - 6-foot-1, 225 pounds.

Matt albers pitching repertoire