Keeping your opponent on their toes is always a crucial ingredient for success in baseball. If you allow them to become comfortable, chances are they are going to perform very well against you. With that in mind, you need to pull out every trick in the book, and sometimes you might even steal an easy out or two along the way.
Pickoffs are an important tool that real pitchers use in baseball to make sure a runner is not getting too comfortable on the base and also helps keep them from stealing the next base. Before they deliver a pitch to the batter, they step off the pitching rubber and throw behind the runner to get them out while taking their leadoff. Here is how to throw pickoffs in MLB The Show 21.
When you are pitching and there is a runner on base, be sure to keep an eye on the little window that appears that gives you a small look into where they are taking their lead. By default, they will always take a couple of steps off the bag, but if you notice them sliding a little further away from the bag, that is when you want to execute a pickoff.
After you make your pitch selection, hold down the left trigger (L2 on PlayStation, LT on Xbox) and your pitcher will look over at the lead runner and you can clearly see what they are doing. To throw to the bag, select the proper base to throw to, and you will attempt a pickoff.
If the opponent was leaning towards going forward too much, you will have a good chance to get them out. If you time it right during where the runner is about to attempt a steal, you can sometimes throw to the bag as they make their move to the next base. This essentially leaves them out in the open, and you will have an easy out. Pull off a successful pickoff, and you will earn the Dugout Walk achievement or trophy.
