Daily dose of Yordan (Game 45)

Quick note: I felt like s**t yesterday and couldn't get out of bed, so I wasn't able to do a daily dose of Yordan yesterday. Apologies for that, I will try and do twice the analysis today as a result.

At bat 1 (Top of the first): 5 pitch hit by pitch

First pitch was offspeed and outside, Yordan took it for the ball it was. Second one was a fastball (I think, it was 91) low and out of the zone that Yordan tapped foul. The pitch after that was a changeup low but in the zone that Yordan whiffed on, to make it a 1-2 count. After that Yordan took a low slider in the dirt before being hit by a fastball that darted too close to his lower elbow area. Not a hit, but still a great disciplined at bat to give his team a better chance to score. He later advanced to 3rd on a Tucker flyout and scored on a Aledmys Diaz fielders choice.

At bat 2 (Top of the third): 2 pitch groundout to second (shift)

First pitch was offspeed, low and out of the zone that Yordan took for a ball. The second pitch looked to be a fastball in a similar location that he swung pretty well on, but was a ground ball right to the second baseman shifted to right. Reminded me exactly of the groundout Corey Seager hit to end the 2017 World Series (a moment that as a Dodgers fan is burned into my mind), exact same location and result.

At bat 3 (Top of the sixth): 7 pitch strikeout swinging

Overall this was a really good at bat by Yordan, with some excellent zone defense in bad counts. He started by watching two offspeed pitches, the first one in the zone and the second one out. Then he fouled off a high fastball, and then we saw the classic Yordan we all see and love. The next 3 pitches were all offspeed, some changeups and some curves, but Yordan spat on them all, taking the obvious balls and fouling off a borderline one out of the zone. He then watched as a high inside fastball almost hit him, but was ruled a corner strike anyways. Nothing to sweat at here, Yordan had a great at bat and was ended as a result of a borderline pitch.

At bat 4 (Top of the seventh): 4 pitch strikeout swinging

Yordan came up in a big moment here, bases juiced and 2 outs. The first pitch was a curve off the plate that was still called a strike, much to Yordan's dismay. He then took a fastball off the plate and fouled off a low curve in the zone. Then Yordan swung and missed on a low curve in the zone to end the inning and strand the runners. Horrible call on the first pitch, I feel like that just set the mood of the at bat and set Yordan up to fail.

Overall while it may look like Yordan struggled today, I feel like he was on the receiving end on a lot of horrible strike calls, and as a result he wasn't really given a fair chance to show his skillset. His discipline and at bats were still extremely good, those will definitely translate to results later.