Adam Wainwright used a four-seam fastball as an out pitch against San Diego:

During his shutout of the San Diego Padres this past week, Wainwright uncorked a pitch he had not used regularly since Class AA. He is learning to love it again.

Since arriving in the majors, Wainwright had thrown both a two-seam fastball and the one-seam sinker popularized by former teammate Joel Pineiro. He has been a devoted follower of the Sinkers R’ Us crowd. He said in his career he had thrown a four-seam fastball twice in the majors. Both grip-it, rip-it pitches went to former Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jason Kendall, and Wainwright thinks both went for base hits to right field. It just wasn’t a pitch he wanted to use, not with the other options he had.

Of course, not pitching well will sometimes force a pitcher into something new. When batters don’t expect a particular movement, even if it’s no movement, the pitch becomes tougher to hit.