Daily dose of Yordan (Game 88)

Today's statline: 1-4, 2 k

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*Almost forgot to post this, I wrote this during the game but forgot to post it, better late than never I guess.

At bat 1 (Bottom of second): 4 pitch strikeout swinging

Yordan started the at bat by taking a questionable fastball that looked an inch off the plate on the broadcast but was called a strike anyways. The fact that the pitch was called a strike led to Yordan having to swing at the next pitch, a fastball in the same vicinity but higher, for fear of it being called another strike. However, he was pretty late on it and had a lazy swing leading to an 0-2 count. He then fouled off another fastball in a similar spot, protecting the zone with two strikes before Montas fooled him with a splitter down in the dirt that Yordan had no chance of hitting. A bad at bat, but I feel like the horrible call to start it kinda set the tone and set Yordan up in a position to fail.

At bat 2 (Bottom of fourth): 4 pitch strikeout swinging

Once again, Montas started the at bat by working Yordan outside, and he took an offspeed pitch in the zone for strike one. He then once again swung and missed at the Montas splitter in the dirt to make it an 0-2 count. Yordan tried his best to close off the zone and took a high fastball for a ball, but again, the Montas splitter was too much for him to handle, as he swung and missed at it again for the strikeout.

At bat 3 (Bottom of seventh): 1 pitch groundout to shortstop

A quick and easy first out here, as Yordan would swing away at a high fastball and hit a routine ground ball into the shift, where the shifted shortstop made the easy out for out one. Good to see him swinging away at good first pitches though, hopefully it continues.

At bat 4 (Bottom of ninth): 1 pitch single

Another example of Yordan hitting a juicy first pitch fastball on the first pitch, and this time it paid off, as Yordan drilled a screaming single down the first base line, where this time there was no way anyone could catch it, leading to a nice solid single. He was pinch ran for with Myles Straw, a solid move in theory as Straw is fast and can theoretically score from first on a deep single, but it ended up not mattering, as Gurriel grounded into a double play on the next at bat, erasing him.