At the start of the previous entry in our At-bat of the Week series, I lamented the offense hitting a temporary rut in the first week of May. One of the cool aspects about this sport is how quickly a narrative can change, and boy has it over the subsequent week of play. The Yankees have breached double-digit scoring four times in the last six games, launching 16 home runs in the process. You might expect one of those home runs to be the feature of this week’s entry, including one — Ben Rice’s first career grand slam to bust the rubber game against the A’s wide open — from the very same inning of the AB we will break down in a bit.
However, this game-breaking blow does not happen if not for an unheralded moment earlier in the inning. As I’ve stated previously in this series, I like to use these entries as an opportunity to showcase moments that maybe don’t appear in the box score. This includes the hitter winning a long battle against the pitcher, an adjustment made within a game or even a within a single AB, or growth from a player as a season unfolds. It is that final case that I would like to highlight today and Anthony Volpe who gets the nod for this week’s entry.
We join Volpe in the top of the fifth with no outs and Jasson Domínguez on first following his leadoff single. The Yankees have Luis Severino on the ropes, but given the bullpen implosion the previous day, the Yankees would love to tack on some more runs.
Severino had a little extra juice on all his pitches facing his old club and looked like he wanted to throw a heater by every hitter. He starts off this AB with a 96 mph sinker down and in hoping he can get Volpe to roll over it for a quick double play ball.
Instead, Volpe takes it for a called strike, the pitch landing right on the inside black as Severino nails his target. It’s a good thing Volpe doesn’t offer at this pitch as there was scant chance at doing damage given Severino’s execution.
Seeing Volpe accordion out of the way of the previous pitch, Severino goes back to the well hoping to replicate that pinpoint execution.
This is an impressive take by Volpe given the first sinker was called a strike. This pitch only lands about three inches farther inside, requiring precise pitch recognition and strike zone knowledge from Volpe to lay off.
After two straight inside sinkers, Severino looks to tunnel his sinker from a similar release point to extract a chase from Volpe.
Even though this pitch lands pretty close to the strike zone, it’s a pretty straightforward take by Volpe. The sweeper is a ball high out of Severino’s hand and never really ducks into any part of the zone during its path to the plate.
Severino missed his previous target high — not something you want with a breaking ball — so to avoid making a similar mistake but in the zone, Severino goes back to the sinker knowing that he is able to execute to that spot down and in.
He does just that, and Volpe whiffs underneath for strike two.
With the count at two strikes, Severino can switch gears from hunting the groundball to hunting the strikeout. The sweeper is his pitch of choice, and he looks to hit the target he intended to command with the first sweeper of the AB.
Severino throws a perfect pitch here right on the corner low and away. Fortunately for Volpe, he gets bailed out by a missed call by the home plate ump and works the count to full.
Severino seemed a bit perturbed that the previous pitch was called a ball. With a little extra anger behind his pitches, he goes on the attack looking to blow Volpe away with the four-seamer, sacrificing precision to the corners for added velocity in the zone.
He nearly gets this heater past Volpe, but the Yankees shortstop is just able to fire a late swing and foul the pitch to the screen to stay alive.
It’s the same story with the next pitch — here’s my best fastball, let’s see if you can catch up with it.
Volpe certainly does, blistering a 108 mph single through the hole on the left side of the infield for his second single of the contest to put a pair on with no outs. When you’ve got a pitcher on the ropes, it is critical that you keep the pressure on and keep the line moving. While not the knockout blow for the overall game, this single proved the knockout blow for Severino’s outing. The Yankees would be rewarded for getting into the A’s bullpen, as three batters later, Rice clubbed the aforementioned grand slam to truly put this one to bed.
Here’s the full AB:
Courtesy of Baseball Savant
After a scorching hot first week, Volpe’s bat cooled off considerably to the point that he was a below-average hitter through the first four weeks of the season. However, over the last three weeks he has turned in a 165 wRC+, notably striking out just 18.5-percent of the time during that stretch. Volpe’s struggles began with heaters in the zone, as he ran one of the lowest contact rates on the team against in-zone fastballs through the first month. He has a habit of whiffing beneath the heat as evidenced by his swings on the fourth and sixth pitches of this encounter. He makes a mid-AB adjustment to stay on top of the heater and puts his barrel right through the four-seamer for the single.
Zooming out to look at the whole year and not just his recent hot stretch, there are signs of Volpe’s maturation as a hitter. This AB showcased his strides in the plate discipline and quality of contact departments. He entered this season with a career 28.4-percent chase rate but that’s down to 19.6-percent through the early going. Last year, his average bat speed was 69.3 mph — this year he’s increased that to 72.1 mph, leading to a jump in his average exit velocity from 87.7 mph to 91.7 mph. Growth in these areas provides hope that the improvements we are seeing have some staying power, and that Volpe can break out of the cycle of hot streaks bookending long cold stretches.