Three rounds of Ryan Borucki vs. the Yankees' dynamic duo

TORONTO – Ryan Borucki has not been hurting for major tests in his first few starts in the major leagues. His debut came against the Houston Astros juggernaut of a lineup and his second outing was against a nine-righty Tigers group built around Nick Castellanos – perhaps the best southpaw basher in the business.

In Sunday’s 2-1 Blue Jays loss, Borucki had yet another significant obstacle to overcome with the New York Yankees in town. Sure, the lineup put in front of him was solid top to bottom, but the real challenge was the two men residing in the two and three holes: Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

As Borucki put it himself after the game, “Obviously you’ve got to focus a little more when you’ve got Judge and Stanton there.”

The Astros may have had more balance, but there’s no other in baseball quite the the duo of slugging giants. In his first of what could be many dances with the towering Yankees, Borucki didn’t dominate, but he held his own as part of a seven-inning, one-run start. His battle with the pair went three rounds.

Round 1

Borucki’s first time facing Stanton and Judge did not exactly go as planned. Before we break this down it’s worth noting exactly how not to pitch these guys. To say there is a consistently-successful way to get them out would be misleading, but there are certainly things to avoid doing. Below is both of their career slugging percentages by zone.

Judge:

Stanton:

So, your rule of thumb is stay away from the low-and-inside part of the plate, obviously avoid middle-middle meatballs and steer clear of the middle-up area. To be fair, that’s a heck of a lot of the plate, but these guys deserve that caution.

When Borucki faced them for the first time, he didn’t necessarily follow those rules though, or to be more specific, he didn’t follow them with Stanton. Against Judge, the southpaw did a good job of peppering the outside corner of the dish with a combination of fastballs and changeups:

Unfortunately for Borucki, the big right-hander knocked the final fastball up the middle for a single. His approach against Stanton was a little more confusing as he went to the lower-inside part of the plate with two fastballs:

Stanton crushed a double to right setting up the only run Borucki allowed on the day. The first pitch was questionable call by Russell Martin, but it worked. On the second, Martin wanted to go to the low-outside corner and Borucki just missed his spot and left it more in the middle.

“In the beginning of the game I didn’t have the command I wanted with my fastball a couple times,” Borucki said of his rough first inning.

Round 1 winner: Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton

Round 2

In his second time facing the Yankees’ mashers, the rookie and his veteran catcher went with a few head-scratching pitches, but the results were undoubtedly better.

Against Judge, Borucki filled a pretty dangerous area of the strike zone with a trio of sinkers ranging from 91-92 mph.

Judge launched a 100.8 mph flyball to right field, but there was enough air under it that Randal Grichuk brought it down with ease.

Borucki took a different tack with Stanton feeding his two breaking balls, followed by two changeups getting him into a 2-2 count.

When he finally did throw a fastball the 2017 MVP was ready for it and launched it on a 120 mph rope over Lourdes Gurriel and into left for a single. Once again, Stanton saw too many pitches in his hot zone and if he had gotten under Borucki’s fastball a touch more we could have been looking at a classic Stanton laser shot.

Round 2 winner: Draw (Although it’s hard to feel great about an average exit velocity north of 110 mph)

Round 3

In the fifth inning, Borucki strove to avoid the dread “third time through the order penalty” against his intimidating foes.

The southpaw’s third battle with Judge was a doozy. He threw the kitchen sink at the imposing slugger mixing fastballs and changeups and keep everything out of the centre of the zone:

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays starter, Judge was simply too patient and earned himself a free pass to first base – one of only two Borucki conceded on the day.

With two men on and one out, Stanton strode to the plate threatening to break the game open. Instead, he ground into an easy 6-4-3 double play. When it comes to locating a sinking fastball in a big spot, you can’t do much better than just below the zone like that and that’s exactly where Borucki put it:

“Today when I got that double play – great double play by the boys behind me – I just focused on keeping the ball down,” he said of the pitch. “That’s a big opportunity.”

Round 3 winner: Ryan Borucki

Judge and Stanton aren’t leaving the middle of the Yankees lineup any time soon. If Borucki keeps pitching the way he has, he’ll have a rotation spot for a while as well. Sunday might have been the first meeting of the two forces, but this a matchup we could be watching for a while.

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