R.A. Dickey's strikeouts, and the rising knuckleball

In yesterday's 2-0 win over the Padres, R.A. Dickey allowed three hits and a walk while striking out ten in 7 1/3 innings.

Dickey faced 26 batters and threw 102 pitches, 66 of which were strikes, and he is now tied for the league lead with seven wins against one loss and a 3.06 ERA in ten starts.

'The game is about ebbs and flows and right now I'm fortunate to be in the middle of a flow,' Dickey said after the game. 'The key is don't get out of the water, regardless of where you are. Overall, I feel pretty good with where [the knuckleball] is right now.'

Dickey has held hitters to leadoff an inning to a .194 average this season.

In addition, Dickey became the first Mets pitcher with double-digit strikeouts in consecutive games since 2006, when Pedro Martinez struck out ten on May 9 against the Phillies and then another ten on May 14 against the Brewers.

'[Home Plate umpire] Tim Tschida said, 'I've never seen the ball do that kind of stuff,'' Terry Collins told reporters after the game. 'That tells you how good his knuckleball was.'

Dickey's 29 strikeouts over his last three starts are the highest three-start total of his career, and it also ties for the second highest total in a three-game span in the majors this season.

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Michael Baron: Dickey has been phenomenal once again this year. The most enjoyable part about watching Dickey is that it's a continuous evolution for him ' everyday it seems he has a new trick up his sleeve to dazzle the opposition, and the results always seem to be positive, at a minimum. In his last two starts, Dickey has featured a knuckleball which has risen up through the strikezone, almost like a tailing fastball but he has the ability to slow it down from pitch to pitch. That new movement has allowed him to keep from using his fastball very much, forcing the opposition to adjust to his stuff rather than Dickey having to adjust to a lack of the feel for his knuckleball.

Yes, the Padres and Pirates have second rate offenses, but they are still Major League teams ' if he hadn't executed his knuckleball and mixed the program as well as he had, he would have struggled as much as he flourished over that span. I said it last week ' he seems to know how to locate his knuckleball, which is proving to be devastating for anyone he faces.