Kikuchi Pitch Mix, Guardians Bullpen Trends

The summer heat is on, and baseball is getting intense.

Teams have made their trades, and now the race for the postseason and awards is heating up. With less than six weeks left in the regular season, let’s dive into some key MLB trends as we approach the final stretch.

Last year’s Padres were a major letdown. They were expected to be World Series contenders but ended up with an 82-80 record. They struggled in close games: 9-23 in one-run games and 2-12 in extra innings. This year, however, things are different.

The Padres are currently strong wild-card contenders and are close to catching the Dodgers for the NL West title. They’ve won 22 of their last 27 games, outscoring opponents 159-90 during this period. FanGraphs gives them a solid 96.3% chance of making it to the postseason.

This year’s Padres excel in tight situations . They’re winning one-run games and extra-inning battles while performing better under pressure:

Jurickson Profar has been phenomenal with a high leverage OPS of 1.673, leading all players by over 400 points! Ryan McMahon follows with a distant second at 1.168 OPS among those with at least forty high-leverage plate appearances.

Jackson Merrill’s rookie season has been nothing short of amazing too! Batting .289/.320/.484 with seventeen home runs and thirteen steals while playing an entirely new position—center field—Merrill has also hit four ninth-inning home runs since July that either tied or gave his team the lead.

"It’s all about focusing on winning," Merrill told MLB.com recently. "If I play for myself or try to hit homers, I might strike out."

Fans will surely appreciate how clutch these players have become!

Cleveland’s Bullpen Working Overtime:

The Guardians had a fantastic start but have struggled lately, seeing their AL Central lead shrink from six-and-a-half games to three-and-a-half since late July. They’ll face crucial series against teams like the Royals soon.

Their bullpen has been heavily relied upon; Cleveland leads MLB with most relief appearances this year—five relievers have already appeared in fifty-eight or more games each! Only fifteen pitchers across baseball can say that right now:

1. Guardians: Five relievers
2. Giants: Three relievers
   3–5: Six teams with two
   6–12: Seven teams with one
   13–15: Fifteen teams without any

Cleveland’s bullpen remains top-notch despite fatigue concerns—they lead MLB across various metrics like ERA & WAR—and could break records set by previous bullpens if they keep up this pace!

Kikuchi’s New Pitch Mix:

Yusei Kikuchi joined Houston Astros from Toronto Blue Jays before trade deadline amidst mixed reactions regarding value exchange—but let’s talk pitches instead!

Astros tweaked Kikuchi’s pitch mix significantly reducing curveballs while increasing sliders usage—the latter being his best weapon historically compared against poorly performing former secondary offering:

Since joining Astros:

• ERA improved from pre-trade figure (4+ range) down below mid-twos!
• Strikeout rates soared higher than ever before!
• Groundball rates also saw positive upticks!

Why Blue Jays didn’t optimize earlier remains mystery—but results speak volumes post-trade proving worthiness despite initial skepticism around deal valuation itself…

What do you think about these changes? Let us know!