Corey Kluber’s no-hitter against the Rangers in Texas last May 19 might not have been the most important part of his brief Yankees tenure — it even may not have been his most consequential contribution that week.
The day before his history-making performance, the veteran right-hander saw Michael King throwing a bullpen session and struggling with his slider.
“I threw four terrible sliders in a row, and he said, ‘Why don’t you try it this way and see if it works?’” King told Sports+. “He gave me the grip and a couple pointers about how to throw it. The first one I threw was good. It felt good, and TrackMan [a tool for tracking and analyzing the ball’s movement] showed it was a good pitch. He said, ‘Keep ripping that.’”
So King did, throwing the “Kluberball” as hard as he could to varying degrees of success. This past offseason, during the MLB lockout, King and Kluber reunited in Tampa, and King refined the pitch, working on his command.
