Aaron Civale leaning on curveball to get him back on track; Jose Ramirez fouls ball off leg

Aaron Civale has been struggling through the worst slump of his major league career through the first month of the 2022 season.

To a much larger degree than any time in the past, Civale is in a rut. He has a six-pitch mix in his arsenal, but five chambers of that proverbial gun have effectively been empty.

Civale carried a 9.85 ERA in 24⅔ innings and a league-leading 27 earned runs allowed into the weekend.

He has actually been striking out hitters at a higher rate than in the past (27 strikeouts this season), but when contact has been made, Civale has been pummeled.

He has a FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching, which accounts for pitcher performance with a neutral defense) of 5.52, which indicates he's had some poor luck and hasn't been pitching quite as poorly as his ERA would indicate.

Still, it's clear Civale hasn't been near his previous levels.

As a rookie in 2019, Civale posted a 2.34 ERA. That was bumped up to 4.74 during the strange, shortened 2020 season. He underwent myriad changes to his delivery and rebounded with a 3.84 ERA last year.

But so far this season? Almost everything has been off. And for the first time in his career, Civale is having to correct his course on the fly.

"Look, he hasn't — he's been in the league for three years now. He's never struggled and obviously this is a tough stretch he's going through," said pitching coach Carl Willis, who recently acted as manager for four days while the team dealt with a COVID issue. "Everyone is going to struggle more than once throughout their career, but that first time can weigh on you a little bit until you get out of it. He's doing everything from a physical, fundamental and mental side to get on top of this."

One major issue is his cutter, a crucial pitch in his repertoire. Civale has thrown his cutter 31.2 percent of the time, the most of any pitch. Civale has six pitches he can go to, but two — the cutter and the curveball — are the most vital to his success.

The cutter hasn't been as effective as it had been in the past. Civale has been working with the team to find the desired pitch shape for the pitch that is needed to complement his other weapons in a better way.

"I think early on, there was a little bit of difference in terms of getting more depth to it as opposed to lateral break," Willis said. "I think that has started to improve, and now it's just a matter of the command and getting it to the spot he wants. But the pitch shape itself is getting back to normal, to what we saw last year."

The problems haven't been isolated to the cutter, though.

Civale's cutter, four-seamer, sinker, splitter and slider all have expected batting averages (based on things like exit velocity and launch angle, which essentially mean how hard it was hit) of at least .263 with an expected slugging percentage of at least .504.

The outlier is Civale's curveball, which has an expected batting average of .219 and an expected slugging percentage of .372. The curveball, which Civale throws the second-most often at 23.8 percent, is the light at the end of the tunnel.

It is, at least, the beginning of Civale's escape, although he knows other pitches will need to come around at some point. Lately, the curveball has been the pitch Civale has used to set everything else up later in the count.

"Some guys might throw fastballs to set up a curveball. I can use the curveball to set up other pitches," Civale told reporters in Minnesota. "That's just going to be a cat and mouse, a chess game, throughout the rest of the year depending on how much that's used.

"Something I'm gonna have to figure out moving forward is having more than just the curveball to play off of and to make sure there are other pitches to use off of that."

Civale will need something other than his curveball to round into form eventually. That has been a missing piece to Civale attacking hitters. The curveball might be his proverbial shovel out of this rut, but at some point, he'll need more.

"I think it comes down to execution," Willis said. "His ability to get the ball inside, particularly to right-hand hitters to keep them off the stuff that's very, very good and works away from them [is needed] just to keep both halves of the plate open."

Jose Ramirez to undergo imaging on shin

Guardians star third baseman Jose Ramirez fouled a ball off his shin during the eighth inning of Thursday's 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Ramirez was in obvious pain. He then hit an RBI single and was taken out of the game for a pinch runner.

Manager Terry Francona said after the game that Ramirez will undergo imaging to ensure there was no additional damage.

"[He's] pretty sore," Francona said of Ramirez. "Hit above his pad, just below his knee. For him to react like that, he's a pretty tough kid. He's gonna get some X-rays. But he's sore."

Francona, meanwhile, will not be with the team on Friday to undergo a minor surgical procedure, according to the Associated Press. DeMarlo Hale will take over managerial duties. Francona is expected to return on Saturday.

The Guardians were recently without Francona for four games when he and six other coaches were placed into the league's health and safety protocols due to a COVID issue that also still has Josh Naylor sidelined. The team has been hopeful that Naylor can return Friday.

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Aaron Civale leaning on curveball to get him back on track