Latest news with #JacksonChourio
New York Times
18 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Can Dylan Cease, Jackson Chourio improve in the second half? What's holding them back?
With a little over two months left in the season, I will look at a couple of players who have underperformed expectations so far. Can Dylan Cease and Jackson Chourio have a stronger second half of the season? What would it take for them to show improvement? Dylan Cease had an underwhelming first half with a 4.64 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate through the All-Star Break. Advertisement The good news is that many underlying metrics point in the right direction. Cease's velocity is still high, and his 3.49 FIP indicates that factors outside of Cease's control contributed to his inflated ERA. That said, we can't just assume that he has been unlucky. Looking at his tunneling, Cease has more separation between his four-seamer and slider this season than last. The last time Cease had this much separation was in 2023, another season when his ERA was higher (4.58). In the images below, look at the red (four-seamer) and yellow (slider) lines around the pink dots. The pink dots represent the hitters' decision point. At this location, Cease performs best when the lines are as close together as possible (like in 2024 and 2022). Graphics and data from Baseball Savant Tunneling is important because it prevents the hitter from recognizing a pitch early in its trajectory. Cease's most successful seasons in the past few years have occurred when he could tunnel his four-seamer and slider tightly. Cease's control and splits both remain in line with his career. The biggest difference in his results stems from contact quality against his pitching. Cease's 42% hard-hit rate against is the worst of his career, and it comes with a 9.9% barrel rate, which ties his career worst. Against righties, Cease primarily throws a slider and a four-seamer. He reduced his sweeper usage in favor of a sinker this season, but the usage of either is so rare that the impact is minimal. He uses his slider down and away and his four-seamer up and away. He does not throw to the inner half. Graphic from Baseball Savant Righties are doing damage and capitalizing on Cease's first pitch. Cease's first pitch is a slider 48% of the time, and his four-seamer is thrown on the first pitch 40% of the time, so he's mixing his stuff well. However, a few poor locations have led to damage. Knowing that the tunneling is a factor, hitters may be able to differentiate spin better (when left up in the zone) from fastballs in the zone. Against lefties, Cease is still mainly throwing a four-seamer and slider, but depending on the count, he'll also occasionally mix in his curveball. He uses his slider backdoor, his four-seamer up and his curveball lower-half and below the zone. Like righties, lefties are doing most of their damage on Cease's first pitch, but they have also done well when behind in the count. The sample size for curveballs is very small. Data and graphics from Baseball Savant. Ten of the 19 hits Cease has given up against his four-seamer came when he was ahead in the count. Like against righties, the tunneling issue may allow hitters better reads out of hand. Getting the four-seamer and slider tunneled as tightly as possible is key to Cease's improvement. In his second MLB season, Chourio has a .757 OPS, 20% strikeout rate and 4% walk rate. While his OPS and strikeout rate are not bad, Chourio entered the season with a lot of hype, given his top-prospect status. He has so far performed worse than in his debut season (.791 OPS). Chourio had an aggressive approach last season and has been more aggressive this season. He often ambushes the first pitch but does well against it with a .338 batting average. While his approach may seem to work, difficulties arise when an at-bat extends beyond the first pitch because he frequently gets behind in the count. Falling behind in the count makes it more difficult for Chourio to succeed. Comparing his stats shows a significant difference in his results when he has disadvantageous counts. Falling behind so frequently also hurts his walk rate, which is fourth-worst in baseball among qualified hitters. When Chourio falls behind, he makes poor swing decisions more frequently. The graphic below shows all of the pitches Chourio has either taken or swung at in 0-1 counts: He consistently chases pitches outside and above the zone that he is unlikely to hit well. When he gets ahead, his results improve, and he can make quality swing decisions. The graphic below shows all of the pitches Chourio has either swung at or taken in 1-0 counts: While Chourio may be too aggressive on pitches inside, he tends to do significant damage when hitting pitches in the inner half. A contributing factor is when he gets ahead, he sees significantly more fastballs (68% of the time). Chourio is doing well with ambushing the first pitch, so I would not recommend he become more passive just to have deeper at-bats. However, given how well he does in favorable counts, it also limits his offensive ceiling. Despite not showing above-average plate discipline in his minor-league career, he can make good swing decisions when he has count leverage. For this reason, if he can find a way to continue making smart swing decisions when he falls behind, he will be better equipped to extend his success to at-bats with unfavorable counts. Thoughts on NYY Cam Schlittler's MLB debut (p.s. go huskies!) — Andrea (@scoutgirlreport) July 10, 2025 (Photo of Jackson Chourio: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
Washington Post
a day ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Brandon Woodruff's gem propels Brewers to 11th straight win, 6-0 over Mariners
SEATTLE — Brandon Woodruff tossed six innings of two-hit ball and the Milwaukee Brewers won their 11th straight, 6-0 over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night. Woodruff (2-0) needed just 62 pitches to make it through his third start of the season, giving up two singles and walking none. The right-hander missed all of the 2024 season because of surgery on his pitching shoulder, and has been brought along slowly by the Brewers since his debut on July 6. George Kirby dueled with Woodruff early, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning. But the Brewers tagged Kirby (4-5) for four runs in the sixth while sending eight men to the plate . The Brewers scored twice in the eighth off Mariners left-hander Brandyn Garcia, who made his major league debut after being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma earlier in the day. Milwaukee (60-40) joined Detroit as the only teams to reach 60 wins so far this season. Joey Ortiz's one-out single in the sixth broke up Kirby's no-hit bid and started a huge rally for the Brewers. William Contreras drove home the game's first run with a sacrifice fly, which was followed by RBI singles from Christian Yelich and Isaac Collins, and an RBI double by Jackson Chourio. The Brewers are two victories away from tying Minnesota for the longest win streak in the majors this season. The Twins won 13 straight from May 3-19. Brewers All-Star rookie Jacob Misiorowski (4-1, 2.81) will start the second game of the series against the Mariners' Logan Gilbert (2-3, 3.39). ___ AP MLB:
Reuters
2 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Brewers complete 2nd series sweep of Dodgers for 10th straight win
July 20 - Isaac Collins delivered a go-ahead two-run single in a three-run sixth inning and the Milwaukee Brewers finished off a perfect run against the Los Angeles Dodgers this season with a 6-5 victory on Sunday. Milwaukee's Jackson Chourio had a single to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, tying a career high set earlier this season. Left-hander Jose Quintana (7-3) gave up four runs on four hits while striking out five over six innings. The Brewers' 10th consecutive victory also completed their second three-game sweep of the Dodgers in less than two weeks. Milwaukee's 6-0 record over Los Angeles is the first time one club swept the other in a season series. The winning streak is the eighth that has gone double digits in Brewers franchise history and the first since an 11-game run in 2021. The Dodgers pulled within a run in the ninth on an infield single from Dalton Rushing before Mookie Betts lined out against right-hander Abner Uribe, who recorded his second save. Shohei Ohtani and Esteury Ruiz hit home runs for the Dodgers, who dropped to 2-10 since July 4. The Dodgers also lost their sixth consecutive home game in the stretch as they committed three errors. Los Angeles left-hander Clayton Kershaw gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and one walk over 4 1/3 innings with two strikeouts. All three Los Angeles errors came while Kershaw was on the mound. Lou Trivino (3-1) gave up two runs in a third of an inning. The Dodgers jumped in front in the third inning when Andy Pages doubled and scored on a Rushing fly ball. With two outs, Mookie Betts singled and came home on Ohtani's 34th home run for a 3-0 lead. The Brewers responded with three runs in the fourth that included an RBI single by Andruw Monasterio that was sandwiched by two Dodgers errors that allowed two runs to come across for Milwaukee. Ruiz made the third Dodgers error, leading to Kershaw's departure in the fifth. Ruiz then hit a one-out home run in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-3 Dodgers lead. Milwaukee sent seven batters to the plate to take the lead in the sixth. Eric Haase delivered an RBI single to tie the game and Isaac Collins hit a two-run single against right-hander Will Klein for a 6-4 advantage. --Field Level Media
New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
How to watch this weekend's Brewers at Dodgers series: NL playoff hopefuls meet in Los Angeles
The Milwaukee Brewers emerge from this week's All-Star break as the National League's hottest outfit, having won seven straight games and grooving atop the mound. Pat Murphy's surging Brew Crew now gets a test in Chavez Ravine, where the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers roll out their big-name bats. Despite a mammoth payroll and defending champion status, Dave Roberts finds his Dodgers at just 5-7 through July's first dozen games. Who had the Brewers with a better run differential than the Dodgers at this point in the summer? Milwaukee has thrown out a largely competitive group throughout the last decade, but it hasn't advanced past the NLDS since 2018. This year's insurgent installment might have the juice to push for it, entering the weekend series only one game behind the dominant Chicago Cubs for a division lead. The Brewers are an excellent 25-12 since the start of June, though they're still an average team away from Wisconsin (23-23, despite outscoring their hosts by 46 runs). Advertisement In the outfield, dogged vet Christian Yelich is on pace for a 30-homer, 20-steal effort in his age-33 season, while 21-year-old Jackson Chourio is projected for a 27-and-27 line. Milwaukee is aggressive on the base paths, coming in at No. 2 in stolen bases across MLB. The Brewers play a fun and swaggering style of baseball, but the Dodgers tend to devour upstart visitors in their own park. L.A. opens this series 33-17 at home. The reigning World Series trophy lifters are sputtering out to a midsummer lull, though, and they were just blown out by Milwaukee in a three-game sweep July 7-9. Shohei Ohtani had a .300/.462/.600 slash line in those losses, but Freddie Freeman slugged a paltry .091, and Mookie Betts fell further to .083. Slump or not, underestimating the offense is deeply unwise. The Dodgers are still second in MLB in home runs, RBIs and OBP, and they've crossed home plate more than anyone in the league. Friday's opening game pits solid RHP Quinn Priester (7-2, 3.55 ERA) against recovering right-hander Tyler Glasnow. The 31-year-old Californian returned from the 60-day IL, where he was shelved with shoulder inflammation, to hurl five innings (one unearned run, three walks and five strikeouts) in that previous Brewers series. The Saturday draw is elite pitch placer and righty ace Freddy Peralta (11-4, 2.66 ERA) versus Emmet Sheehan (1-0, 2.03 ERA), who returned last month from Tommy John surgery. Sunday's conclusion offers a pair of ultra-experienced lefties in José Quintana (6-3, 3.28) and Clayton Kershaw (4-1, 3.38 ERA). Together, these two have put together 32 Major League campaigns. Quintana's done so with eight different teams; Kershaw is, of course, a Dodger lifer. Most home runs in both jerseys: Ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Shohei Ohtani and William Contreras: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
Al Arabiya
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Al Arabiya
Peralta, Chourio and Turang Star as Brewers Beat the Nationals, Extend Win Streak to 7 Games
All-Star Freddy Peralta pitched one-run ball through 6 2/3 innings, Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang homered, and the Milwaukee Brewers extended their winning streak to seven games with an 8-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday. Peralta (11-4) carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Jacob Young, Washington's No. 9 hitter, slapped a hit through the infield between third and short. The 29-year-old right-hander got the first four Nationals to open the game and rebounded after Turang's two-base fielding error on Luis García Jr.'s grounder in the second inning by retiring the next 12 batters. Peralta, who allowed three hits and a walk and struck out seven, left the game following Daylen Lile's run-scoring single with two out in the seventh. The Brewers climbed to a season-best 16 games above .500 at 56-40. Peralta made his 20th start of the season and relinquished his second All-Star selection. Reliever Trevor Megill took Peralta's spot and joins rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski on the NL team. Chourio hit a three-run homer and Turang added a solo shot, all in the eighth for Milwaukee. Washington's Jake Irvin (7-5) allowed four hits in five innings with five strikeouts. Brewers right fielder Sal Frelick left the game in the third after making a sliding catch in foul territory. The team said he had left hamstring soreness. Shortstop C.J. Abrams was scratched from Washington's lineup due to minor right-shoulder soreness. Paul DeJong got the start. After Saturday's game, the Nationals optioned right-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara (0-1, 13.50 ERA in two starts) to Triple-A Rochester and recalled righty Andry Lara from Double-A Harrisburg on Sunday. Key moment: Nationals third baseman Brady House's fielding error opened the door for three unearned runs in the Brewers' third, highlighted by Anthony Seigler's two-run single for his first career RBIs. Key stat: Peralta walked one, struck out seven, and improved to 7-0 in 10 starts at American Family Field.
