Daily dose of Yordan (ALCS game 1)

Today's statline: 1-3, RBI, 2 K

​

At bat 1 (Bottom of first): 6 pitch sac fly to left, RBI

Facing Sale with runners on early, Yordan didn't start the at bat off ideally, as he fouled off and watched Sale fastballs that were both in the zone to put himself down 0-2 early. Instead of folding over and settling for a lazy passive strikeout looking or grounding into weak contact, Yordan clutched up, taking three straight borderline pitches out of the zone to work from 0-2 to a full count. I was most impressed by the last pitch he took, a really close outside fastball that easily could have been a swinging strikeout or strike looking, kudos to both Yordan and the ump for getting this call right. On a 3-2 Sale threw yet another fastball, and Yordan pounced on it, driving it high and deep to left field, easily scoring Altuve for a sac fly for the first runs of the game. A great job here by him to take what Sale was giving him (fastballs high in the zone) and work the count with hood eue until he found one he could do damage on.

At bat 2 (Bottom of third): 1 pitch single to left

After throwing Yordan exclusively fastballs in the previous at bat, Sale thought he could be sneaky and throw Yordan a first pitch slider outside to begin this at bat. Despite it being a tad bit out of the zone, Yordan pounced on it, and although he was slightly late with his swing, he simply muscled it over the head of the infielders and into very shallow left field for an easy single. While it wasn't pretty to watch, it still kept the line moving and ultimately was a winning play. He wouldn't score though unfortunately, as although he advanced to second on a Correa single, Tucker and Gurriel grounded out to end the inning.

At bat 3 (Bottom of fifth): 4 pitch strikeout swinging

Full disclosure, I was too busy spamming "HOES MAD" in the Astros discord and didn't get to see the entirety of the at bat, but it doesn't look like I missed much of importance. Facing new reliever Ryan Brasier, who I pinpointed as a really tough matchup for Yordan, he started the at bat with a slider in the dirt for a ball before fouling off a fastball in a similar spot. That was all the positive in the at bat, however, as watched a slider right down the middle for a passive take before whiffing badly at a fastball right down the middle for the second out of the inning. A disappointing at bat in a situation where the Astros badly needed a couple runs. Hopefully he should come up one more time in the later innings.

At bat 4 (Bottom of seventh): 5 pitch strikeout swinging

Now in a tie game with no one on and facing Hansel Robles, I expected Yordan to have a pretty good time against the mediocre reliever, and through 4 pitches it certainly looked that way, with Yordan working into a 2-2 count and having a very good idea of how to hit Robles' fastball (although he looked a bit off on the changeup). Robles certainly noticed that as well and took advantage of it by throwing a high fastball up in the zone when Yordan was clearly expecting a fastball, leading to an extremely delayed swing and miss. Thankfully Correa would hit a huge home run to lead the Astros to the game 1 win, good to see him put the team on his back and come up huge when it mattered.

​

Too lazy to do a pitch data today, but overall it does feel like Yordan struggled vs the offspeed pitches from Boston's relievers. Against both Brasier and Robles it looked like he clearly saw the fastballs well but struggled against Brasier's slider and Robles' changeup, that definitely could use some work and will likely get better as the series progresses. Overall I was impressed by his work early, and while the overall line may look unimpressive it was definitely more of a team effort, which is good to see. All in all a huge game 1 win for Yordan and the Astros despite not playing their best ball (except the bullpen, wow), hopefully they secure the game 2 lead to take commanding control of the series.