Mark DeRosa reveals the secret to Framber's nasty curveball

UNCLE CHARLIE

MLB Network's Mark DeRosa does an in-depth breakdown of Framber Valdez's legendary curveball after his historic 25th straight quality start in a season.

I highly recommend watching the video above to get a full sense of what makes this pitch so dominant. But to some it up, Framber's curve looks more like a fastball out of the hand than most curveballs. Meaning, Framber's curveball doesn't have any vertical lift when popping out of his hand, which often lets the hitter know a breaking ball is coming. Valdez's pitch stays on the same level plane longer and has more of a 12-6 break that allows him to use it in more ways, and in different parts of the strike zone. Having the 3rd-highest spin rate in MLB doesn't hurt either.

Mark explains in better than I can, so check it out if you like. Also, you can turn on the closed captioning in the video if you are unable to listen.

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Warriors defeat the Rockets, 105-98. Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images.

Stephen Curry scored 27 points and the Golden State Warriors withstood a late surge by the Houston Rockets for a 105-98 victory Thursday night.

The Warriors were clinging to a two-point lead before using a 11-2 run to make it 102-91 with about two minutes remaining. A highlight of that spurt came when Curry juked Jeff Green before swishing a 3-pointer and Jimmy Butler wowed the visitor’s bench with a two-handed dunk about a minute later.

Golden State led by as many as 24, and frustrated with the poor performance of his starters, Houston coach Ime Udoka benched Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun and Dillon Brooks to start the fourth quarter. The team’s backups keyed a 16-6 run that cut the lead to 88-86 with seven minutes left.

Nate Williams, who was playing in just his sixth game this season, had seven points in that stretch.

Udoka never re-inserted the three starters. Aaron Holiday led the Rockets by tying a career high with 25 points as Houston lost for the seventh time in nine games.

Takeaways

Warriors: Butler has played well in his first few games with Golden State and should only get more comfortable with his new team after the break.

Rockets: Houston’s stars must play better after the break if the team wants to stay in contention in the Western Conference and make the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Key moment

Curry’s 3-pointer over Jeff Green during Golden State’s run that put away the game.

Key stat

Butler finished with 19 points after scoring at least 20 in his first three games since a trade from Miami.

Up next

The Rockets resume play after the All-Star break when they host the Timberwolves on Feb. 21. The Warriors visit the Kings that night.

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