SAN FRANCISCO — One of the rare challenges in baseball is when a team goes up against a knuckleballer. There have only been 29 pitchers in the history of baseball who are considered primarily knuckleballers, including the Braves’ R.A. Dickey. Dickey revitalized his career by turning to the knuckleball and it netted him an All-Star Game appearance and a Cy Young Award back in 2012 when he lead the league in strikeouts.
While Dickey has not been quite as fearsome in the years since his Cy Young award-winning season, it is still always a challenge for a team to face a knuckleballer since they are so rare. Some players on the Giants have seen Dickey before, and it’s a mixed bag when it comes to how well the’ve batted against him in the past.
Giants outfielder Justin Ruggiano has been the most successful against the veteran knuckleballer, and is 4-for-8 against Dickey in his career with one home run. Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey and Brandon Belt on the other hand, are a combined three-for-26 against Dickey with one home run and eight strikeouts.
Manager Bruce Bochy said before the game that while Dickey presents an unusual challenge, he doesn’t want his players to overthink it.
“It’s a big adjustment for the guys, it really is,” Bochy said. “You just don’t see [knuckleballers] very often, so you try to get the guys to be patient but be aggressive once it’s in the zone. We have a machine that can [throw a knuckleball] just to start that adjustment. You try to play guys who have had success off a knuckleballer, although we have a couple that haven’t done real well against a knuckleball pitcher because you just don’t see it very often. I think we can put too much into this knuckleball thing…the guys can’t do that.”
Dickey is 2-1 in five career starts against the Giants and last pitched against them in 2013 when he secured a 4-0 win with 8.1 innings pitched and five strikeouts.
