Daily dose of Yordan (Game 109)

Today's statline: 1-4, HR, 2 RBIs, R

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At bat 1 (Bottom of first): 7 pitch groundout to second

Yordan swung and missed pretty badly at the first pitch, a slider inside, low and away, for the first strike. Kinda shocking to see him miss as badly as he did there. He then watched a fastball high and inside near his hands to even the count, and then fouled off another fastball in a similar spot to put himself down 1-2. Once again though, Yordan didn't buckle and cave in on a two strike count, instead choosing to take another inside low curve and a high fastball to make it a 3-2 count, and then tapping a curve in the zone to protect the plate. Then on the 7th pitch of the at bat, Yordan made great contact on a low offspeed pitch and one-hopped it into the right field grass, but unfortunately, the second baseman was positioned right there and threw him out easily to end the inning. Pretty disappointing to see a good battle and execution by Yordan ending with a result out of his control.

At bat 2 (Bottom of fourth): 7 pitch flyout to left

Once again, the pitcher started the at bat off by throwing Yordan a low pitch out of the zone, but this time he took it for ball one instead of making a bad swing. He then took a stone-cold strike on a pitch where it looked like he was taking all the way. Then he watched a noncompetitive curve for ball two, and then another bad pitch to put him ahead 3-1. However, Yordan then fouled off consecutive fastballs on pitches in the zone to put him in a full count before hitting a high and deep fly ball to left that off contact looked like it had a chance to be a home run or deep double, but unfortunately was right at the warning track for the flyout, something that's become common for Yordan over the last couple of days.

At bat 3 (Bottom of sixth): 5 pitch groundout to first

Facing the new reliever, Yordan took back-to-back curves, one low and one near his hands, both for balls to put himself ahead 2-0. However, then the reliever came out with a fastball low but in the zone that Yordan fouled off hard and a curve in the exact same spot that he whiffed on. Then on the fifth pitch, Yordan got an offspeed pitch low in the zone, and similar to his first at bat, hit it pretty well to the right side, but this time right to the first baseman who stepped on the bag for the unassisted out. So far it's been a good day recognizing and timing up pitches for Yordan, but with not much to show for it, it does look like he will get another at bat in the ninth though so hopefully the Baseball Gods reward him this time.

At bat 4 (Bottom of ninth): 3 pitch home run to right, 2 RBI's, R

In the bottom of the ninth, facing former A's reliever Daniel Coulombe (🤮, dude was terrible on my MLB the show team), Yordan started the at bat by watching the first two pitches, a low curve and a low fastball, to set himself once again in a favorable count. Finally, on the next pitch, Yordan executed and got a great swing off on a low fastball in his barrel zone, similar to the location on the Victor Gonzalez home run he hit a couple games back. He just absolutely smacked the s**t out of the ball on that one, launching it almost 10 rows back in the upper deck for a no-doubt two run home run, scoring Brantley. A great job as always hitting the low pitch coming inside off a lefty, exactly like the Gonzalez bomb, Yordan took advantage of a lefty without intimidating stuff having to throw in Yordan's comfort zone after working into a bad count.

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Total pitch data:

Fastball – 11

2 put in play (Home run and flyout), 5 out of zone, 4 foul,

Curveball – 9

6 out of zone, 2 foul ball, 1 strike swinging

Slider – 2

1 strike swinging, 1 put in play (groundout)

Changeup – 2

1 strike looking, 1 put in play (groundout)

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Once again, Yordan did a masterful job at cherry picking for pitches he could hit today. His great job particularly against curveballs and fastballs (11 balls out of 11 taken pitches between those two, 6 fouls on waste pitches) was magnificent today, and while the stats may not show it, his mastery of the zone in general today was outstanding. His great discipline and patience seemed to translate to tangible, important results especially towards the later innings, hopefully that's a streak that continues throughout this series.