Daily dose of Yordan (Game 137)

Today's statline: 1-5, 2B, RBI, K

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At bat 1 (Bottom of first): 3 pitch lineout to left

Yordan started the at bat by watching a high and tight Kikuchi fastball outside for a ball. He then fouled off a middle-middle offspeed pitch to even the count. Then after a brief break where Altuve was picked off second, Yordan swung away on an inside fastball and hit it pretty well to left field, but right to Kelenic who made the routine catch for the last out of the inning. A good swing on a good pitch, just a suboptimal result.

At bat 2 (Bottom of second): 4 pitch double to center, RBI

Again, the at bat started with a couple high and inside fastballs Yordan took from Kikuchi, the second of which came dangerously close to plunking him. On a 2-0 count Yordan then had his customary strike right down the middle taken. Then on 2-1 Kikuchi threw a mistake of a pitch, a fastball that squeaked in at 91 MPH that Yordan rocked into deep center field. Altuve would score easily, and Yordan cruised into second on a stand up RBI double that pushed the lead to 6-0. A gorgeous pull swing from him here, he clearly knew what pitch he wanted and positioned his swing accordingly. He wouldn't score though, as although Correa walked, Gurriel grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning.

At bat 3 (Bottom of fourth): 2 pitch flyout to center

With Kikuchi having been disposed of, Yordan faced reliever Justus Sheffield in the fourth with a 4 run lead. For the third consecutive time, he took an inside fastball for a ball. Then Yordan got an offspeed pitch in the zone that he again made good contact on, hitting it pretty far to the same zone as his double the previous at bat. Unfortunately it was hit a little too lazily though, as the center fielder made the routine catch for the out.

At bat 4 (Bottom of fifth): 5 pitch strikeout looking

With the bases loaded and two outs, Yordan stepped up in a pretty important situation, and it didn't start ideally, as he fouled off a fastball and a changeup, both well within the zone, to go down 0-2. He then took consecutive pitches outside and low for balls to even the count. However then he simply watched a stone cold strike almost right down the middle to end the at bat and strand the bases loaded. 100% could have done more with that pitch, it feels like after aggressively starting the at bat he got too passive and that bit him in the ass later on.

At bat 5 (Bottom of sixth): 1 pitch flyout to left

Yordan came up in the sixth with an 8 run lead and the bases loaded again, a very low leverage situation but still interesting to note. Facing Doolittle (who he probably faced in the 2019 world series), he swung at the first pitch, a slider in the zone, and mis-hit it for a lazy pop fly that was caught in the outfield to end the inning. Not that big of a loss considering the circumstances of where the game was at the time, but probably could have done more with that pitch, he normally crushes offspeed pitches, especially sliders, in the zone. Despite having a mostly productive game, he's left 8 runners on base this game, a wild stat that is probably a career high for him and won't be reached again, especially in a win.

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Quick note, gonna be Kawhi load managing the rest of the regular season DDoY games, posting only games where Yordan does something noteworthy (basically all games where he has a hit). Preparing for the grind that will be daily postseason DDoYs with more content, which should be a blast. Hopefully Yordan and the Astros finish out the season strong!