Daily dose of Yordan (Game 32)

At bat 1: 8 pitch flyout to center

It definitely looked like Stripling was trying to establish the outside half of the zone, as all three of his first pitches were outside, leading to a 2-1 count with him painting the outer edge. Yordan eventually worked it into a full count with multiple hard fouls, but then Stripling threw a high fastball that Yordan hit pretty well, but was caught in the cavernous CF in Minute Maid.

At bat 2: 5 pitch strikeout looking

The second time he came up, Yordan was extremely passive. After a hard foul for his first pitch, Yordan simply watched the next 3 pitches, all of which were fastballs somewhat close to the zone and low, and then watched a knuckle curve fall into the zone for strike 3.

At bat 3: 3 pitch single to short left

Like at bat 2, Yordan once again looked pretty passive for the first two pitches, barely moving the bat. However, on his 3rd pitch he got a low inside pitch in his wheelhouse, and despite a bit of a mis-hit he had enough power to punch it into shallow left. Pretty good approach overall, and the solid fundamentals led to a hit despite a less-than-optimal hit.

At bat 4: 3 pitch single to left

Kinda funny to say, but this was pretty much exactly what happened in the 3rd at bat all over again. He saw two pitches, one of them an offspeed foul, and then used his natural power to take a low fastball opposite field for another single. It's hits like this that I love the most from Yordan, where he simply uses his raw power and quick swing to simply take what the pitchers give him.

At bat 5: 3 pitch groundout to first, RBI

Yordan took two good pitches again for a 1-1 count, before finally reaching on a low outside pitch for the first time all night. It went about as good as you would expect, as he pulled it extremely to the right field side and it was an easy unassisted out for Vlad at first.

Overall:

Another great game for Yordan, proving that even with being a bit aggressive and things not going his way he wanted (most notably on his strikeout looking), he could still contribute in a big way and help the team win. His discipline looked as good as always and aside from his last at bat, I didn't see a single bad pitch he swung and didn't connect on. Great game, the 2nd in a row, hopefully this is the beginning of a hot streak.