Daily dose of Yordan (Game 151)

Today's statline: 1-2, R, 2 BB, DP

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At bat 1 (Top of first): 5 pitch double play to shortstop

Yordan started the at bat with his customary strike taken right down the middle, this time on a slider low near his knee area. He then took a fastball nowhere near the zone to even the count. The pitcher then threw Yordan another lazy slider right down the middle, and pulled it deep to right field but hooking foul. An inside fastball near his hands evened the count back up to 2-2, before getting a fastball right in the zone that he chopped up the middle. Unfortunately with the shifted defense the shortstop (Rengifo I think?) made a nice play to throw out both Yordan and the lead runner Gurriel to end the inning. Although it wasn't an ideal outcome, it definitely looked like he was consistently recognizing and hitting the starter's changeup really well, hopefully that translates in future at bats.

At bat 2 (Top of third): 6 pitch walk

The at bat started off with two low changeups from the starter to Yordan, the first of which was low and in the dirt and the second of which he chopped foul. He then had an extremely good take, cold watching a very easy to chase fastball that appeared to be slightly off the plate. He then took an offspeed pitch again way down and away to put himself ahead 3-1. He then took another one of his trademark cold takes on a fastball right down the middle to put himself in a full count, but then took another fastball way outside the zone (like a couple feet outside) to take his base. He would advance to second on a Correa single, but would not score, as Tucker grounded out to end the inning. Great job here by him to take some pretty difficult pitches and force the pitcher to walk him, seeing how his command was off.

At bat 3 (Top of fifth): 1 pitch single to center, R

Facing the new reliever in the top of the inning, Yordan displayed his elite brand of selective aggressiveness, as he swung at the first pitch he liked, a 97 MPH fastball that was flat and right down the middle, and pounded it up the middle past a diving Rengifo into center field for a clean single. He absolutely scorched the ball, a nice Yandy Diaz-style hit for him here. He would later advance to second on a Tucker walk and then score on a Aledmys Diaz 2-run single that effectively ended the game.

At bat 4 (Top of sixth): 6 pitch walk

Yordan came up in a situation that usually should have been high leverage (1 out and 2 runners on) but because of the 6 run lead really wasn't. The new reliever started off by throwing Yordan two back to back offspeed pitches, first a slider right down the middle that he fouled off and a changeup low in the zone that he watched for a ball. The reliever then decided to throw Yordan 4 consecutive fastballs the rest of the way, all of which were high, but most of which were outside the zone and/or near his hands. Barring one which Yordan fouled off, he took his base with the easy walk as the pitcher simply could not reliably hit his spots with his fastball and Yordan made him pay for that. Although he would later be erased on a Tucker fielder's choice later in the inning, it was still a great and extremely underrated at bat of this game for him to keep the line moving and take what the pitcher gave him.

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Having started in LF for today's game and with a 9 run lead, Dusty (understandably) took Yordan out in the bottom of the inning, choosing to end his night early in favor of Chas McCormick. He didn't look particularly bad in left today, he made a few routine plays, although he still looked extremely herky-jerky at times in the field, such as when Gosselin hit a double to him very early in the game. As always, good to see him getting reps in the field, although with the postseason approaching he should probably play a lot more DH to get him into that mindset of contributing solely with his bat. Overall a big night for Yordan and the Astros, great to see and hopefully they carry over the momentum into the playoffs. Also would like to apologize for the lack of DDoY posts over the last ~week or so, would love to have covered his games then (his two homer game against Texas was extremely impressive) but just didn't have the time.