While in Boston on a recent vacation, my wife and I decided to take in a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. We arrived early and sat down to watch the two starting pitchers (Joe Kelly for Boston and Collin McHugh for Houston) warming up.
Kelly spent his time stretching and limbering up before throwing. Then he stood about 60 feet away from his catcher and threw several dozen pitches—a fairly average warm-up, I'd say.
McHugh took a different approach. He started about 40 feet away from his catcher and threw easy pitches into the strike zone. After each throw, he moved back a step or two and soon he was throwing from the standard 60-foot distance. However, he didn't stop there.
He kept moving backward and eventually ended up something like 100 feet away from his catcher. That meant he had to throw harder and faster to reach his target. And he did! I was impressed by how accurate his throws were from that great a distance.
