Pitch Tunneling in MLB The Show 26: How to Tunnel Pitches

For a long time I pitched online in MLB The Show the way most people do: throw strikes, mix in a breaking ball, hope. It works against the CPU. It does not work against a person who has figured out that you throw a slider every time you get to two strikes.

What fixed it for me was pitch tunneling. Once I understood it, I stopped thinking about pitches one at a time and started thinking about them in pairs. This guide is everything I wish someone had handed me back then — the real baseball idea first, then how it shows up in The Show, then how to practice it without giving away a bunch of Ranked games.

What a pitch tunnel actually is

A pitch tunnel is two pitches that leave the hand from the same arm slot and travel the same path for most of their flight, then split apart late. The hitter sees one window. By the time the pitches go to different addresses, the hitter has already committed.

That's the whole idea. It isn't about any single pitch being nasty. A 94 mph fastball on its own is hittable. A slider on its own, once you know it's coming, is hittable. The damage comes from the hitter not knowing which one it is until it's too late to do anything about it.

The way I explain it to friends: start them in the same window, send them to different addresses. If your two pitches look different from the moment they leave the hand, you don't have a tunnel — you just have two pitches.

The tunnel point: 23.8 feet and 175 milliseconds

In real baseball, the reason tunneling works is reaction time. Pitch tunneling research puts the tunnel point at roughly 23.8 feet from home plate. Past that point, a hitter has about 175 milliseconds before contact — not enough time to see the ball, recognize the pitch, and change the swing. Whatever the hitter decided by the tunnel point is basically locked in.

So the goal is simple to state: two pitches should look as close to identical as possible at the tunnel point, and as far apart as possible when they reach the plate.

Pitches look the same early because of release (same arm slot) and initial trajectory (same starting line). They end up different late because of movement (opposite break, or a big vertical gap) and velocity (a big speed gap wrecks timing even when locations are close).

Why tunneling works in MLB The Show

In The Show, the hitter on the other end is a person with a stick and a PCI. To square a pitch up they have to start moving the PCI and decide to swing before the ball arrives. Good online players read the early flight of the ball — where it's heading out of the hand — and get their PCI moving toward it.

That's exactly what a tunnel exploits. If your fastball and your slider start in the same window, the hitter's PCI goes to the same place for both. The fastball arrives where they expected; the slider is a foot away by the time the swing gets there. Do that a couple of times and they start hesitating on the fastball too, which is when you start winning at-bats you used to lose.

Pitch pairs that tunnel well (and two that don't)

The numbers below are 2024 MLB Statcast averages for a right-handed pitcher — the same data I built PitchTunnels on. "Plate separation" is how far apart the two pitches end up at the plate, using horizontal break and induced vertical break.

Opposite horizontal break: sinker or 2-seam with a sweeper

The sinker runs to the pitcher's arm side and the sweeper breaks hard to the glove side. Same release, then they go in opposite directions — about 33 inches apart by the plate. For a right-hander against a right-handed hitter, that's a pitch that starts at the hitter's hip and runs in, paired with one that starts in the same spot and sweeps off the outer edge. It's the biggest separation of any common pair.

Vertical: high 4-seam with a curveball

A 4-seam fastball has a lot of "rise" relative to gravity (around +16.5 inches of induced vertical break) and a curveball drops (around −9.5 inches). Throw the fastball at the top of the zone and the curve on the same line, and they split vertically — the fastball stays up, the curve falls out of the bottom. This one works against both handedness and it's the pair I'd start with if you're new to tunneling.

Velocity: 4-seam with a changeup

Here the trick is timing more than movement. A changeup actually has positive induced vertical break (around +7 inches) — it doesn't "drop" so much as it doesn't ride like the fastball. Same arm action, 10 or so mph slower, and the hitter is out in front. It's the classic weapon against opposite-handed hitters: a righty's changeup fades away from a lefty.

The two that look good on paper but disappoint

Cutter + slider sounds like a tunnel because the arm action is so similar. But they break the same direction and only about 2 mph apart, so they end up roughly 8.5 inches apart. A good hitter can cover both. Sinker + circle change is even closer: both run arm-side and finish about 2 inches apart. That pair is entirely about velocity — fine as a change of pace, not a tunnel.

How to tunnel pitches in MLB The Show 26, step by step

1. Pick one pair from your pitcher's actual arsenal. Not the pair from a YouTube video — the pair this pitcher throws. If he doesn't have a sweeper, the sinker/sweeper tunnel doesn't exist for him.
2. Throw the "straight" pitch first, to an edge. Usually the fastball or sinker. Its path is the tunnel you're establishing. Hit the edge you want — top of the zone for a 4-seam, the inner edge for a sinker.
3. Aim the second pitch where its break will carry it from that same starting window. If the fastball was at the top of the zone, the curve should be aimed at the bottom of the zone in the same vertical lane. If the sinker was at the hands, the sweeper should be aimed at — or just off — the outer edge. You're not aiming at the same spot; you're aiming so the pitch starts at the same spot.
4. Make the second pitch finish just off the plate when you're ahead. The tunnel is what gets the swing started. A pitch that finishes a little out of the zone gets swings and misses; one that finishes in the dirt by three feet gets taken.
5. Watch how the hitter reacts. Swinging over the curve means they bought the tunnel. Taking it easily means your two pitches aren't starting together — move the second target closer to the first.

How to practice tunneling in Diamond Dynasty

1. Start against the CPU with one pitcher and one pair. A vs-CPU Diamond Dynasty mode or the game's practice options are fine. The point is reps on aim, not wins. Throw the pair twenty or thirty times and watch the replays: do both pitches look the same for the first half of the flight?
2. Add a second pair from the same pitcher. Most starters have at least one horizontal tunnel and one vertical or velocity tunnel. Having two means you aren't stuck throwing the same combination every hitter.
3. Take it into lower-stakes online games. Events are a good middle step before Ranked. Online hitters react differently than the CPU — they'll sit on your first pitch, so this is where you find out whether the tunnel actually holds up.
4. Keep notes on what worked. Which pair, which count, which handedness. I used to do this on paper. That habit is literally where my apps came from.
5. Then go to Ranked with a plan. Before the at-bat, know your first pitch and what it sets up. Planning three pitches ahead is what turns a tunnel into a sequence — I wrote a separate guide on pitch sequencing examples for that.

Full disclosure: I built PitchTunnels because my laminated charts weren't fast enough mid-game (the whole story is in this post). You add a pitcher with the pitches he actually throws, set the batter's handedness and whether you're ahead, even, or behind, and it ranks tunnel pairs for that matchup. The Attack Plan screen builds a three-pitch sequence from a first pitch you pick. It's free to start, but nothing in this guide needs it — the concepts work with a notepad.

Common tunneling mistakes

• Aiming both pitches at the same spot. That isn't a tunnel; it's the same location twice. The pitches should start together and finish apart.
• Throwing the breaking ball first every time. The tunnel only works if the hitter has seen and respected the straight pitch. If they've never seen your fastball up, the curve has nothing to hide behind.
• Burying the second pitch too far. A slider that finishes way off the plate doesn't look like a strike out of the hand, so it doesn't fool anyone. Just off is the target.
• Leaning on same-direction pairs. Cutter/slider and sinker/circle change feel like tunnels but separate very little. Use them for variety, not as your putaway plan.
• Running the same tunnel all game. Online opponents adjust. If they've seen sinker-then-sweeper three times, show them sinker-then-sinker. The threat of the tunnel is half its value.

Quick answers

What is pitch tunneling in MLB The Show?

Two pitches that look the same out of the hand and share a path until the hitter has to decide, then split late. The hitter commits before they can tell which pitch it is.

Where is the tunnel point?

Roughly 23.8 feet from home plate — about 175 milliseconds before contact.

What are the best pitch tunnel combinations?

Opposite-break and big-velocity-gap pairs: sinker or 2-seam with a sweeper, 4-seam with a curveball, and 4-seam with a changeup or forkball.