I understand that sometimes a pitcher wants to try to get a ball in play—though we should remember that there’s an active debate about how much control over balls in play pitchers actually have, and the current consensus is it’s less than you might expect. And I was partly joking. But even to continue seriously, Figueroa didn’t say anything about getting ground balls or soft pop-ups. He said he tried to throw the ball over the middle of the plate. Sounds a little too much like batting practice to me.