A.J. Griffin felt better than ever after 104-pitch shutout

Sunday’s starting pitcher A.J. Griffin is coming off the only complete-game shutout thrown by a Rangers’ pitcher since September 2015.

How do you improve on that?

“I try to throw a no-hitter every time I pitch,” said Griffin, who has won his last four starts. “I just try to stay within myself and execute pitches, have conviction in every pitch I throw and try to be on the same page with my catcher.”

Rangers manager Jeff Banister said the key to Griffin’s success is throwing his breaking ball for strikes and early in counts.

“He can use the fastball out of the same [throwing] slot, Banister said. “With the spin rate that he has, he gets it above the barrel, and gets mis-hits above the barrel. The breaking ball out of the same slot with sub velocity allows him to miss the barrel.”

The 104 pitches Griffin threw in his Tuesday win against the Padres are the most he has thrown this season. The last time he went nine innings was June 2013 when he was with the Athletics.

“The innings were pretty crisp for the most part,” he said. “It’s as good as I have felt after any outing my whole career. I stayed inside my delivery, I wasn’t trying to do too much. I wasn’t putting much stress on my shoulder and just staying on top of the baseball. I’ll try to keep doing what I’ve been doing, executing pitches.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 7:11 PM with the headline "A.J. Griffin felt better than ever after 104-pitch shutout."