Starting Attitude
By Kevin Henry
As a 24-year-old making his way through his first MLB season, Austin Gomber walked off the mound at Coors Field on August 26, 2018, after allowing the Colorado Rockies just five hits and one earned run over six innings of work. As a newer member of the St. Louis Cardinals rotation, Gomber was in the middle of an August where he would log a 5–0 mark and 2.38 ERA in seven starts, including a solid performance at 20th and Blake.
A fourth-round pick of the Cardinals in 2014, it seemed that Gomber had finally found his place in the big leagues. After all, the Cardinals won all seven of the games that Gomber started during that magical August run. Baseball, however, is a game that you can never take for granted.
Gomber was sent to Triple-A to start the 2019 season and battled injuries throughout the campaign. He wouldn’t see a Major League mound again until a relief appearance for the Cardinals on July 26, 2020. With the pandemic shortening the season to 60 games, the southpaw took part in 14 contests, including four starts for the Cardinals, and produced a 1.86 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, while opponents hit just .190 against him.
So what would 2021 hold for Gomber and the Cardinals? Certainly not what was expected. On February 1, Gomber suddenly found himself as the centerpiece of a trade return coming back to Colorado as All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado headed to St. Louis.
Rather than wondering why, Gomber embraced the opportunity to pitch in Colorado, calling it “a new start.” Pitchers often cower from the challenge of pitching at Coors Field. Gomber, instead, embraced it.
“Being in a trade with somebody of Nolan’s caliber, I felt like I was probably going to get an opportunity to show what I could do here,” Gomber said. “I had been in the same place for a long time with the same people. Sometimes in the game, people form opinions on players. When I was drafted, I didn’t even throw four pitches. I didn’t throw a curveball. What my strengths are right now didn’t even exist when I was drafted. I felt like I always had that going against me. I always had kind of a glass ceiling of what people thought I could be. I always felt like I was outperforming that ceiling, but I was being treated as if I was hitting that ceiling.”
A change of scenery can be a very good thing, and it has been a positive for both the Rockies and Gomber. However, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a season without some early bumps in the road.
Gomber made his Rockies debut on April 4 and walked seven Dodgers in three innings of work. That would be part of an April where he walked 19 batters in 23 frames.
“Early in the season, he was walking guys and a little nervous,” says Colorado Pitching Coach Steve Foster. “I mean, he has the pressure early on of being a guy traded for Nolan Arenado and that type of thing. No matter who you are on this planet, it’s a heavy burden to carry. So we tried to help him with the mental aspects of that, of not focusing on the things you can’t control and not worrying about the things people say or write about. I’ve been impressed with his ability to handle it all.”
After April’s struggles, Foster says the Rockies worked with Gomber to tweak his delivery.
“He made a few changes early with his stretch. We thought he was tipping his pitches and we helped him a little bit with that. And then we changed his windup just a little because he was rocking. We got him away from the rocking motion that he was doing. It was kind of an energy-taker,” Foster explains. “We posted him up similar to (Antonio) Senzatela just to quiet up his delivery a little. So we helped him with the tipping and then we helped him with the quieting of the delivery. He’s a great student. He’s a quick learner and appreciated it, and it helped his confidence some.”
The results were noticeable. Gomber walked just four batters in 34.1 innings, covering six May starts. June was even better, as he didn’t issue a free pass in four starts (21 innings) before landing on the injured list on June 20 with left forearm tightness. (Gomber returns from the IL today, July 21, in a start vs. the Seattle Mariners.)
And, much like he did in that 2018 start at Coors Field, Gomber has shown in 2021 that he feels very comfortable at 20th and Blake. In six starts (30.1 innings) in Denver, Gomber has a 1.48 ERA and opponents are hitting just .167 against him.
“I don’t think it’s much different than pitching anywhere else,” Gomber says of his attitude about pitching at altitude. “I think it’s kind of just how the game goes. I just had some good days here. I don’t think it’s anything specifically that I’m doing different.”
Part of Gomber’s success, according to Manager Bud Black, has been his ability to mix his four pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup). According to Baseball Savant, Gomber is throwing his fastball 40 percent of the time in 2021, while his slider (24 percent), and curve and changeup (18 percent) have been effective secondary pitches.
“There’s still room to improve. I think there’s some upside,” Black says. “We’ve talked about his four-pitch mix. I think that is going to continue to be his strength. I don’t think you’re going to see an increase in velocity. I don’t think you’re going to see more velocity out of his slider and curveball. You might not see a great deal more movement in his changeup. He has to continue to just refine that mix, where he’s really comfortable throwing any pitch at any time in any count, which I think ultimately will be a big strength of his moving forward.”
Gomber calls it an evolution of who he is as a pitcher, and he knows there is plenty of work still left to do.
“Baseball in general is kind of just a nonstop evolving thing, right? You’re always figuring out something and then something else goes to crap and you have to figure that out. It’s nonstop adjustments really,” Gomber says. “I’m a different pitcher now than I was a year ago, and I’ll probably be a different pitcher a year from now than I am right now.”
And as for the change from Cardinal red to Colorado purple, Gomber says the long and winding road over the last four seasons has been worth it.
“It’s been good,” Gomber smiles. “The people here have been good and I am learning a lot. I feel like I’m getting better, so it’s all I can really ask for.”
