Daily dose of Yordan (Game 161)

Today's statline: 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, R, K

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At bat 1 (Bottom of first): 3 pitch home run to right, 3 RBIs, R

Down in an early 2-0 hole but with two runners on, the at bat didnt start the way Yordan or the Astros wanted it to, with him swinging and missing badly on an offspeed pitch down in the dirt. He then chopped another outside offspeed pitch foul to put himself down 0-2. Considering Yordan seemed to have problems hitting Blackburn's changeup correctly, the logical pitching strategy would be to throw him a fastball to mess up his timing, but instead Blackburn threw Yordan a curve even slower than the fastball but low and just a bit out of the zone, his sweet spot. He dug it out of the inside corner and crushed it into right field, almost like a line drive for a lead-taking 3 run home run, scoring Altuve and Bregman. Great job by him here to break that HR slump he was on and take advantage of a pitcher throwing right into his favorite part of the zone.

At bat 2 (Bottom of second): 4 pitch lineout to center

Facing Blackburn again, this time in the second now with a big lead, Yordan this time got two consecutive fastballs from him, one way outside the zone for a ball, and then a strike right down the middle that evened the count. After a changeup in a similar place as the 1st pitch made it a 2-1 count, he got a fastball high in the zone that he normally feasts on, but instead he hit a solid line drive that was unfortunately right at the center fielder instead. He made pretty good contact in my opinion, just couldnt get the thing to fall.

At bat 3 (Bottom of fourth): 3 pitch strikeout swinging

Unlike the previous at bat, which was a bad result despite a good try, this at bat was not promising at all. After a trademark look on a changeup high in the zone, Yordan swung and whiffed twice in row on very hittable, high fastballs that were in the exact same location. While they were well executed pitches, sure, there's not really an excuse for a hitter of Yordan's caliber to miss on two nice pitches in the zone with such uncomfortable swings.

At bat 4 (Bottom of sixth): 1 pitch lineout to center

After a terrible previous at bat, Yordan started the at bat off by getting a fastball in the zone and hit it pretty well to center field. Unfortunately, just like the second at bat, it was right at the center fielder, who made the routine grab to end Yordan's night at 1-4. Some very well hit fly balls, hopefully he can turn those into tangible results by the postseason. Just one more regular season DDoY left until extensive postseason coverage!