Daily dose of Yordan (Game 82)

Today's statline: 1-2, HR, RBI, R, 2 BB

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

Yordan, as he always does, started the at bat by watching a fastball right down the middle for a strike, He then swung under another fastball to make it an 0-2 count. After the disappointing start though, Yorda buckled down, fouling off an offspeed pitch and then watching a fastball near his hands for a ball. He then took another offspeed pitch low and in the dirt for a ball, before tapping another offspeed pitch foul. Yordan then hit an extremely hard liner to right field on the next pitch, another low fastball, but because of the shift the second baseman was there and threw out Yordan for the easy first out. Still an extremely good at bat in my opinion, he did a great job protecting the plate after falling down in the count early and made excellent contact after a 7 pitch battle.

At bat 2 (Top of fourth): 4 pitch home run to right, RBI, R

The at bat started with Yordan taking an offspeed pitch low and outside for a ball, before taking a low inside fastball for ball two. He then tapped a low fastball foul for the first strike, before getting a low fastball in the zone that he just crushed into right center field. He was a tiny bit late on it, but he just muscled it with his immense raw power 446 feet into the Astros bullpen. Great job by him here to seek out his money pitch (low fastball in the zone) and lay off every other pitch before forcing the pitcher to cave and throw it.

At bat 3 (Top of fifth): 6 pitch walk

Yordan watched an inside fastball for ball one, and then watched the exact same pitch for ball two. He then watched a curveball right down the middle for the first strike, before watching yet another inside fastball for ball 3. On the 3-1 count, he hard fouled one down the right field line to make it a full count before watching an outside fastball (ironically very close to that bullshit pitch that rang him up for strike 3 yesterday) sail in for a ball as he took his base. He would be erased at second on an inning-ending Tucker double play, but I'm still very impressed by Yordan here, that makes it 3 straight good at bats where he hasn't swung at any bad junk and has controlled the zone well.

At bat 4 (Top of eighth): 8 pitch walk

Once again, just a beautiful display of strike zone discipline here for Yordan, making it 4 plate appearances in a row where he just has refused to swing at a bad pitch. He started the at bat by watching a low fastball for ball one, before watching back to back fastballs right down the middle for strike two. Then on the 1-2 count, Yordan once again found a way to lock down the zone, fouling off a high fastball to protect the zone before watching a low offspeed pitch for ball two. He then watched an outside fastball for ball three to make it a full count, before hard fouling off a low fastball again to stay alive. He then watched an outside fastball high and way outside for ball four, to work it back from an 1-2 to a walk. Dusty would pinch run Chas McCormick for him, as he often does in the later innings, but Chas would not score, marking the end of Yordan's day.

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I must say, Yordan was terrific. As I've said before, he didn't swing at a single bad pitch today, and capitalized on pitcher mistakes when he wasn't showing off his elite discipline. This is the Yordan from 2019 that we all know and love, an efficient machine that refuses to give in to any pitcher. Amazing game overall from him today, hopefully it's the start of a hot streak. Until then, thanks for reading and go Yordan!