Milwaukee Brewers southpaw Josh Hader pitched a scoreless ninth inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday to record his third save of the young season.
The 24-year-old southpaw has been confounding hitters in the early going, and he's been doing it exclusively with his fastball. So far, he doesn't want to mess with success.
"We're just reading the hitters and going with the flow," he said, according to Tom Haudricourt of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Like I said before, why try to fix something that's not broken. If I'm executing pitches and they're getting hit, we'll figure another plan out."
Hader recorded a six-out save in his first game of the season on 21 pitches. He followed that up with an immaculate ninth inning against the Cardinals on March 30 before retiring the Reds on 16 pitches Monday.
Through three games, all 46 of Hader's pitches have been fastballs. Teammate Ryan Braun is in awe of the lefty reliever's dominance.
"I've never seen anything like it," Braun said, according to Haudricourt. "I guess Mariano (Rivera) was somewhat similar, in that he'd throw the same pitch 90-plus percent of the time, although it was a cutter. To dominate with one pitch at this level is incredibly rare."
It's a new development for Hader, too. In 2018, he threw his fastball 79 percent of the time while otherwise relying on his slider and an occasional changeup, according to FanGraphs.
