off-speed pitch
1
7.6
- noun
- Jargon
:
lanzamiento de cambio
- To confuse the batter, he decided to throw an off-speed pitch instead of his usual fastball.
- throw an off-speed pitch
You have to have an off speed pitch to set up your fastball.
- You have to have an off speed pitch to set up your fastball.
Examples
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And the answer I give is an off speed pitch and I'm curious.
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You have to have an off speed pitch to set up your fastball.
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The curve became Karstens' go-to off-speed pitch with a two-strike count or when ahead in the count.
Blog text (22) -
Successful pitchers often use an off-speed pitch to throw off a batter's timing.
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During the game, he struck out several batters using his effective off-speed pitch.
Synonyms
5
5.6
A slow baseball pitch that tricks the batter into swinging too early
3
6.4
A slow pitch that fools a batter who expects a fastball
1
8.3
A slow pitch in baseball thrown to trick the batter
A baseball pitch thrown much slower than expected to surprise a batter
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
off-speed + pitch
The phrase is compositionally built: 'off-speed' can be parsed as 'off' (away from) + 'speed' (velocity), meaning reduced speed, and 'pitch' is a throw, so together they denote a throw at reduced speed. Although it is sports-specific jargon, the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the component words.
Etymology
The baseball term off-speed pitch comes from throwing a pitch that is off the usual speed, meaning the ball is thrown slower than the batter expects. That's why an off-speed pitch is used to 'trick' the batter into swinging too early or missing.