How Cristian Javier’s fastball became the best pitch this postseason
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Jeff PassanESPN
PHILADELPHIA — Late last week, before Cristian Javier etched his name into baseball history, his Houston Astros teammates attempted to describe his fastball. By velocity alone, it is a milquetoast effort, flung from his right arm at 94 mph. And yet one teammate called the pitch “obscene” and another said “it looks 100” and a third deemed it “invisible.” On Wednesday night, after Javier started Game 4 of the World Series, one more teammate chimed in with the most apt descriptor of all.
“Clearly unhittable,” Astros closer Ryan Pressly said.
Certain pitches in baseball are so good they anger hitters, aggravate and frustrate and confound. Javier’s fastball tops the list. He threw invisiball after invisiball Wednesday, carving through a Philadelphia Phillies lineup with six no-hit innings that set the stage for Pressly to close out the first ever combined no-hitter in the World Series; the Fall Classic’s first hitless effort since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. Houston’s 5-0 victory evened the World Series at two games apiece and continued the 25-year-old Javier’s meteoric rise from sometimes-starter, sometimes-reliever to the most dominant pitcher this postseason.
It’s a reputation that Javier solidified over 11⅓ innings in the playoffs’ last two rounds, with Javier allowing one hit and no runs and racking up 14 strikeouts against the potent offenses of the New York Yankees and Phillies. In a World Series that has featured starts by Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, Javier has twirled the best game of the bunch.
Javier finds himself here because of that fastball, a pitch that combines a number of important attributes to make it a wholly unique pitch — “a unicorn,” said one scout, who called Javier’s fastball the best in all of baseball, an assessment with which others concur.
The secret sauce for Javier’s fastball starts with something called vertical approach angle (VAA). It is essentially the pitcher’s equivalent of launch angle, measuring the angle at which a fastball goes toward the plate. Pitchers with extremely high arm slots have high VAAs, and ones like Javier, with lower arm angles, come with low VAAs.
What’s exceptional about Javier isn’t just a VAA that is third lowest among starters, behind Freddy Peralta and Joe Ryan, two other pitchers whose fastballs play way above their velocities. His high front side adds some funk and deception to the delivery. His spin rate and spin efficiency are well above average. VAA is an important factor — “a big component of it [with Javier] is the approach angle, we think,” Astros pitching coach Josh Miller said — but the other elements help give the pitch what looks like a rising effect.
Physics, of course, prevent a fastball from actually rising. With Javier’s VAA and spin characteristics, his fastball simply drops less than the average one. And because nobody else throws like him, hitters trying to track the pitch struggle because of how it carries through the strike zone and looks as if it’s hopping as it crosses the plate.
“That’s just an absolute kangaroo of a fastball coming from his hip,” Astros reliever Ryne Stanek said. “And he’s got some of the longest arms I’ve ever seen. His fastball is obscene.”
“Doesn’t matter what the radar gun’s saying,” fellow reliever Hector Neris said. “It may say he’s 94, but the heater looks 100. It’s gas.”
That deception explains why, one day after hitting five home runs off Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. amid concerns that he might have tipped his pitches, the Phillies couldn’t see anything against Javier — or the three relievers that followed him, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Pressly. Ten days after his last start, against the Yankees, Javier threw 97 pitches, 70 of which were fastballs. He struck out nine, including a five-batter stretch in which he got J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos swinging before catching Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott looking, all on fastballs.
“His nickname is El Reptil because he’s just cold-blooded,” Stanek said. “Nothing fazes him. He could give up a pump, same face. Punch the side three innings in a row, same face. He’s just that guy. What he does is special.”
The Astros knew that already. They’d seen Javier sashay into Yankee Stadium on June 25 and throw seven no-hit innings with 13 strikeouts, paving the way for Neris and Pressly to finish what wound up as only their first combined no-hitter of the season. This one was bigger, better, far more important in ensuring the Astros would return home for a Game 6 and have a chance to clinch a championship at Minute Maid Park.
Pitching in Game 4 in front of his father, Cecilio, who had never seen Javier pitch in the big leagues before, only added to the majesty of the night. Javier was already an unlikely success story: A failed outfielder who converted to pitcher, signed at 18 years old out of the Dominican Republic for $10,000, figured out how to harness his unicorn and rode it not just to the big leagues but to the sort of praise that hitters lavish infrequently.
“It’s electric,” said Christian Vazquez, who caught the no-hitter. “It’s like playing PlayStation with him. You don’t care if it’s going down and away. It’s going to finish up.”
Astros players brave enough to step into the batter’s box against Javier understand how he finished this season with a 2.54 ERA and remains unscored upon as a starter since Sept. 7. In his final four starts of the regular season, Javier threw 23 scoreless innings, allowed six hits and struck out 29.
“I did play catch with him a couple spring trainings ago, and it just really gets on you,” said Hunter Brown, another member of the Astros’ dynamic bullpen. “It’s just kind of invisible. I remember the first couple — you always wanna catch it in the seat. First couple hit me kind of in the pink area. I’m like, OK, I better figure that one out.”
In 2020, Javier’s rookie season, third baseman Alex Bregman faced Javier in a live at-bat on a shadowy day at Minute Maid Park during MLB’s accelerated spring camp. Bregman stared at strike one, strike two, strike three, not even lifting the bat off his shoulder. He walked back to the dugout, put his lumber in the bat rack and said: “I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Opponents wish the same. They’ll say so to Bregman at third base — if they can get there — and wonder how a pitch sitting 94 can look triple digits or how from his low slot he can generate such true spin or how they keep swinging over that stupid fastball.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Wow, it’s just insane stuff,'” Bregman said. “And they’ll say it’s insane how the ball looks coming out of his hand.”
So, OK, this magic pitch, this miracle fastball, this World Series no-hitter-causing bit of sorcery: What does it look like coming out of his hand?
“I don’t know,” Bregman said. “I didn’t see it.”
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Dave Wilson
The dates for the first nine-game SEC schedule were released on Thursday, and all eyes are on Sept. 19, when Lane Kiffin and LSU return to Ole Miss after Kiffin’s dramatic exit for Baton Rouge.
Among other marquee games scheduled for 2026: Georgia travels to Alabama on Oct. 10 after they split two matchups in 2025: Alabama won in Athens and Georgia won in Atlanta in the SEC title game.
On Nov. 14, Arch Manning returns to his home state of Louisiana with Texas to face LSU, as former USC and Alabama colleagues Steve Sarkisian and Kiffin face off.
The following week, on Nov. 21, Kiffin leads LSU into Knoxville against Tennessee, which also was jilted by Kiffin after one season in 2009.
Kiffin is one of six SEC coaches in new places: Pete Golding at Ole Miss, Will Stein at Kentucky, Ryan Silverfield at Arkansas, Alex Golesh at Auburn and Jon Sumrall at Florida.
Stein debuts in the SEC’s first league matchup on Sept. 12, when Alabama travels to Kentucky. There are two other marquee matchups that week, when Oklahoma travels to Michigan and Ohio State visits Texas. The following week, Alabama gets a home rematch against Florida State, who beat the Tide in Week 1 of the 2025 season, and Sumrall and Golesh meet in the first Florida-Auburn game on the Plains since 2011.
On Rivalry Week, Texas at Texas A&M remains on Friday, Nov. 27, but the Egg Bowl moves to Saturday, with Mississippi State facing Golding and Ole Miss in Oxford, along with the Iron Bowl, with Auburn visiting Alabama.
The new format also allows for some new fan experiences. On Sept. 26, Texas visits Neyland Stadium and Tennessee for the first time in history for a battle for UT supremacy. On Oct. 17, Kentucky visits Oklahoma for the first time in 46 years, and the Sooners travel to Mississippi State for their first-ever meeting. Texas A&M rekindles an old Big 12 rivalry against Oklahoma in Norman, the first time the two have met since 2011.
In order to work out the new scheduling rules, some teams will play road games for a second straight year against the same team, like Arkansas, which returns to Texas, and Texas A&M, which returns to Missouri.
The additional conference game has limited the amount of programs playing smaller teams in nonconference matchups in Week 12, traditionally a tune-up game before rivalry week. This year, there are just four such games on Nov. 21: Alabama (UT-Chattanooga), Auburn (Samford), Ole Miss (Wofford) and Mississippi State (Tennessee Tech).
The league also sought to preserve three annual rivalries for each team, with the remaining six games rotating among the remaining schools. Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent in a home and away over a four-year span.
As part of the restructured schedule, the league said each school will be required to schedule at least one Power 4 opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Notre Dame.
The top two teams in league standings based on winning percentage will play in the SEC Championship in Atlanta on Dec. 5.
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Dan Wetzel
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Dan Wetzel
ESPN
- Dan Wetzel is a senior writer focused on investigative reporting, news analysis and feature storytelling.
Former Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore, who remains in custody as a suspect in an alleged assault, is expected to appear in court for arraignment on Friday, the Pittsfield Charter Township (Michigan) Department of Public Safety announced Thursday.
The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office told ESPN that it does not expect a decision Thursday on whether to file criminal charges against Moore. Authorities have yet to release details about Moore’s arrest, other than to say that he remains under investigation.
Moore was incarcerated at the Washtenaw County Jail on Wednesday, just hours after he was fired as the Wolverines’ football coach for having what the school said was an “inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”
“The matter involving Mr. Moore remains under active investigation by law enforcement, and as a result, we do not expect charging decisions or an arraignment today,” Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Liz Mack said Thursday. “Mr. Moore remains in custody at the Washtenaw County Jail.”
Pittsfield police released a statement Wednesday night saying they responded at 4:10 p.m. to the 3000 block of Ann Arbor Saline Road “for the purposes of investigating an alleged assault. … A suspect in this case was taken into custody. This incident does not appear to be random in nature, and there appears to be no ongoing threat to the community.”
Moore was initially detained by police in Saline, Michigan, on Wednesday and turned over to authorities in Pittsfield Township “for investigation into potential charges.”
Michigan fired Moore on Wednesday following an investigation into his conduct with a staff member.
“U-M head football coach Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately,” the school said in a statement. “Following a University investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”
The university initially investigated Moore this fall after receiving a tip about the situation but did not find credible evidence of wrongdoing, a source told ESPN. More information came forward Wednesday that the source said was “overwhelming” and led to Moore’s immediate dismissal.
Moore, 39, spent two seasons as Michigan’s coach after serving as the team’s offensive coordinator.
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