For some players success comes easily and quickly. For others it takes a little while to develop. Cristopher Sanchez was like that when he pitched for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. You could tell there was talent there but he was inconsistent and rarely seemed to put everything together in a game. When things did come together for him he was very good, but in his next outing he could look like a different pitcher.

Right-hander Gabe Mosser is that type of pitcher right now. There is something there to like, but something seems to be missing in many of his starts which is why his ERA sits at 5.66 in 13 starts with the IronPigs. Saturday night though Mosser looked different as he delivered six innings of one run ball for Lehigh Valley in a come from behind 5-4 win in 10 innings.

“We just located a lot better and our sequence was a lot better tonight,” said Mosser after his latest start. “(Garrett) Stubbs and I were on the same page the whole night. So that was a plus. When you’re on the same page with the catcher it makes a world of difference.”

Mosser’s final line came in at: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2 HB, 1 HR. Mosser threw 81 pitches, 54 of them for strikes.

Of the five strikeouts, four of them were on called third strikes. Mosser was able to command his pitches well and was able to keep hitters guessing. Part of the reason for the success goes back to a pitch that the 29-year-old threw in high school and has kept in the arsenal with varying degrees of use; a knuckle-split. As with a knuckleball, Mosser’s knuckle-split has a reduced rotation and when thrown correctly tumbles down and in to left-handed hitters and away from righties. The lower the RPMs on the pitch the more of a tumbling action on the pitch.

Mosser threw a knuckle-split to leadoff hitter Kameron Misner in the first inning on a 2-2 pitch and got the rotation and tumble he wanted, but came too far inside to the lefty hitter and hit him in the foot with the pitch. The RPMs on that pitch were clocked at 1265. For comparison, Mosser’s slider usually checks in around 2968 RPMs.

If he is able to gain more command on the pitch, Mosser may have rediscovered something that would be able to help him down the road.

Like many of the IronPigs pitchers, Mosser has come to have confidence in catcher Garrett Stubbs. The two go over hitters prior to the game and Mosser draws on the study of opposing hitters that Stubbs brings to the game. The connection between the two has helped Mosser.

“We always have pregame meetings,” said Mosser of how he and Stubbs work on a game plan. “We’ll sit down for a half hour and just go through each hitter and I think that’s big. We’ve thrown to each other a lot now, so I think that’s also a big factor.”

It helped that Mosser was able to get ahead of hitters, throwing 18 first pitch strikes to the 24 hitters that he faced.

“When you get ahead in the count, the averages go down, they say. So, that’s huge. It sets up a lot more pitches and when you’re locating and throwing a lot of strikes it helps a lot,” Mosser explained.

While he continues to look for the opportunity to make his MLB debut, Mosser is taking a day-by-day approach and just trying to make every start count.

“I think you can get better every day with everything. I still missed with some pitches tonight but when they hit the ball defenders just happened to be there, so that’s that’s always a plus,” said Mosser. “I think just fine-tuning some pitches and locating them in better spots. I threw a lot of strikes tonight, but I think there’s obviously room for improvement.”