Being a Major League starting pitcher is hard. It's even harder if the opposing batter knows what's coming.
That could have been the case for Houston Astros starter J.P. France on Wednesday evening against the Chicago Cubs.
After two strong first outings to start his MLB career, France gave up six runs in 4.2 innings pitched. That included three home runs, two walks and saw his ERA rise to 4.11 over 15.1 innings pitched.
It raised the question: was he tipping his pitches?
“We’ll have to look at video to see if I was tipping or something," said France. "I could talk about that all I want. At the end of the day, we pulled one out and got the sweep. It was a good game.”
France is right, at the end of the day the Tulane-product kept his team in it enough to help them complete a walk-off win over the Cubs.
But Kyle Tucker won't always be there to bail him out in the bottom of the ninth.
Best case scenario is France figures out how or if he was tipping and rectify the issue ahead of his next start.
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