Chi Chi Reflects on 2015 Finale

Chi Chi Gonzalez had some really nice parts of his rookie season in 2015, and he also had some really bad moments.

Perhaps the worst moment of his season came in his final appearance of the year — Game 3 of the ALDS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays with a 2-0 series lead after taking the first two games in Toronto.

Gonzalez, who was the long and middle relief man for the postseason, came into the game for Martin Perez with the Rangers trailing 2-0 in the sixth inning, and then things went south in a hurry.

Gonzalez ended up getting a double play with the bases loaded to bring up the struggling Troy Tulowitzki with two runners on base. Gonzalez threw him six pitches, and on the sixth one, Tulo turned and sent the offering into left field, over the wall and into oblivion to give the Blue Jays a 5-0 lead and begin a three-game win streak in the best-of-three series.

According to BrooksBaseball.net, the six pitches ranged from 89.3 to 90.9 mph, which theoretically allowed Tulo to get his timing down after struggling up to that point in the postseason. Gonzalez told the Dallas Morning News he has to vary his velocity more to throw good big-league hitters off.

"Everything was the same," Gonzalez told the Dallas Morning News. "When I was in the bullpen, I tended to try to throw everything hard, and that meant a lot of pitches looked exactly the same. When I started, I had better difference. I need to make my breaking ball slower."

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