It’s not often that you can turn on a Major League Baseball game and see a player do something that you could easily do. Baseball at the professional level is a very a hard sport and the majority of us would look silly if we ever got the chance to play in a game.
But thanks to a swing by New York Yankees star Giancarlo Stanton during Tuesday night’s loss to the Baltimore Orioles, fans everywhere were able to feel a sense of commonality, as New York’s designated hitter whiffed on a pitch that was nowhere near the strike zone.
this pitch had a zero percent chance of ever entering the strike zone as soon as it left his hand. tells me he’s just guessing at the plate. potentially made up his mind to swing before the pitch was even thrown https://t.co/Fcvb52Zseh
This guy needs to be released. Who cares that he can hit a ball 118 mph once in a while. Admit your stupid mistake of acquiring this guy and why you did it and move on. Hal and Cashmans gigantic sized egos couldn’t take it, I know #yankeeshttps://t.co/E4UZosXen9
There needs to be a rule, you cannot make more than $10 million a season if you have 5+ at bats per year that are this low in quality. Travesty for the game and for player contracts in the future. Long term mega deals are done. Exhibit A https://t.co/n182BeQqqh
The first saw Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who tossed seven innings of shutout ball against the Yankees, fire a 97 MPH sinker that shattered New York slugger Giancarlo Stanton's bat as he grounded out to Mookie Betts at shortstop in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Then, two frames later in the bottom of the sixth inning, Yamamoto, facing Yankees star Aaron Judge, fired a 97 MPH heater for a called strike, an offering that was caught on a home plate camera angle in a video posted onto X, formerly Twitter, by Rob Friedman.
The scariest part about these angles is that they still don't do true justice as to how fast the pitches are coming out of Yamamoto's hand.
And Yamamoto certainly was lighting up the radar gun on Friday night, as his four-seam fastball boasted an average speed of 97 MPH, up 1.5 MPH from his season average of 95.5, en route to the seven-strikeout performance against one of the best lineups in MLB.
The Dodgers (40-25) and Yankees (45-20) will lock horns again on Saturday at 7:35 p.m. ET, with Gavin Stone (6-2, 2.90 ERA) on the mound for Los Angeles and Nestor Cortes (3-4, 3.46 ERA) opposing him for New York.
