There’s not a lot of run to the Bergert slider, but there is about 30-plus inches of drop. By movement, it’s not a special pitch, but there’s some kind of deception there that gets major league hitters out. On the afternoon, Bergert recorded seven strikeouts. Six of them came with Sox hitters going down swinging. Five of those were on the slider.
Bergert threw 28 sliders on the day, got 17 swings against the pitch and recorded eight whiffs, good for a 47 percent swinging strike rate.