Daily dose of Yordan (Game 115)

Today's statline: 0-3, BB, R

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At bat 1 (Top of second) 1 pitch flyout to left

Yordan swung at the first pitch this time, a high fastball in the zone, and made pretty good contact, hitting it hard and deep to left field. Unfortunately, it died a couple feet short of the warning track for a routine flyout.

At bat 2 (Top of fourth): 9 pitch walk

Yordan had a great at bat here against Sandoval. He took the first four pitches of the at bat, a curve right down the middle to start the at bat, and then a fastball near his hands to even the count. He then watched another stone-cold fastball right down the middle before narrowly taking an outside low fastball to make the count 2-2. Then Yordan had one of his greatest 5-pitch sequences of the whole season, fouling off consecutive fastballs, changeups, and sliders, all low chase pitches, to keep himself alive. Then Sandoval made the mistake of trying to get him to chase low and inside, in his sweet spot. He threw two terrible fastballs way outside in the zone, giving Yordan the walk and completing the comeback from 1-2 to 4-2. An amazing job here to work the count in his favor and simply stop swinging at the waste pitches low and away, definitely one of his better at bats of the season. He would later score on the pivotal Kyle Tucker grand slam later in the inning.

At bat 3 (Top of fifth): 5 pitch lineout to right

The at bat started with three consecutive balls by Yordan, the first two on a low fastball and changeup low and inside, before watching a fastball low and away to make the count 3-0. He then watched another strike right down the middle, and then got a fastball inside in the zone. He crushed it, cracking it hard to right field (you could hear a large crack of the bat right off the bat) but once again, the defender was right there, leading to the hard to watch lineout.

At bat 4 (Top of eighth): 3 pitch groundout to second

Yordan watched two fastballs to start the at bat, one right down the middle and another low and outside. Then on the 1-1 count, he lined a curve low in the zone hard to second, but right to the second baseman who made the routine play to throw him out.

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Pitch data:

Fastball: 12

6 out of zone, 2 put in play (lineout and flyout), 3 strike looking, 1 foul

Curveball: 4

2 out of zone, 1 put in play (groundout), 1 strike looking

Slider: 1

1 foul

Yordan did a great job today understanding the strike zone, in particular his mastery against the fastball (6/12 taken for balls, 2 well hit fly balls) was great to see. I think he should have been a bit more aggressive against the fastball though considering he was doing so well against them. All of his strikes looking were in favorable counts and right down the middle so he probably could have made nice contact on them. Overall just a good night by Yordan with a lot of solid contact, unfortunately you can't see it in the box score.