James McArthur holds down Long Beach until Ole Miss bats explode
LONG BEACH | James McArthur is sometimes the forgotten third of the Ole Miss rotation.
Ryan Rolison is the likely first round pick, and Brady Feigl is the veteran right-hander, who has always flashed explosive offerings and is coming into his potential. McArthur, the Friday starter at times in 2017, is in charge of the final day of the series, and for the first time it was a deciding game on getaway day.
On Sunday in Long Beach, Ole Miss’ offense became the story with a five-run fifth that carried the Rebels to a 12-1 rout over the Dirtbags, but 80 percent of McArthur’s outing happened with a tie game or one-run advantage. He kept things quiet in the home half for five shutout innings and lowered his season ERA to a minuscule 0.59 through three starts and 15.1 innings.
“He hung in there and really pitched well,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “He’s been so critical to us with the the ERA under one, and he’s pitched superb.”
He began the day with a .250 batting average against, and the seven walks on the season are more than desired, but for now McArthur is locking teams down once they get on the bases. Opponents are hitting only .118 against the right-hander with runners on. He twice pitched around a leadoff walk and once stranded a leadoff single on Sunday.
McArthur has a 1.18 WHIP which is far from bad, but his situational pitching stands out when WHIP is compared to ERA.
Tristan Mercadel singled to start the second, but after an infield pop up, McArthur struck out Steven Rivas, and Cooper Johnson easily threw out Mercadel attempting to steal second base. An inning later, after a walk to being the frame, McArthur picked up two of his five strikeouts and benefited from a line drive that Tyler Keenan snared at third base.
In the fourth, two runners reached with one out. McArthur threw six of the next eight pitches for strikes and a fielder’s choice and line out kept the score at 1-0 leading into the Rebels’ big inning.
“When you get in those sticky situations you have to take a deep breath and make the pitch,” McArthur said. “You can’t make too much of it. That’s when things get out of hand. I’m trying to simplify the game and make pitches when I need to.”
The Texas native threw 90 pitches, 56 strikes and sat down Long Beach in order after the five-run inning. He struck out two and threw a ground ball in his final inning.
McArthur entered the season with 24 career starts and has gradually improved with limiting big innings. As a freshman he had five starts last three innings or less, and while he was exceptional at times it remained an issue that would pop up at times in 2017. Other times he led the Ole Miss staff and had his best start with eight innings of one-run pitching at Arkansas.
“I remember my freshman year when I wasn’t very good at it,” McArthur said. “Last year I struggled at times, but it’s one of the biggest strengths I’ve brought into this year. I pound the zone and when runners get on it’s go time.”
When things get complicated McArthur relies on his fastball, and he did that Sunday, throwing it in and out and missing bats at critical times. His rhythm occasionally gets off, and he doesn’t always start the first inning at max ability, but now there’s confidence that early runners won’t mean major issues.
“He has a special fastball,” Bianco said. “It’s not going to light up the gun like some people, but he commands it to both sides of the plate and can get a few breaking balls over. His fastball and fastball command are pretty good.”