It’s official: the Yankees offense is in a slump. They have hit a new low this season, getting swept in four putrid games at Fenway by the last place Red Sox. The bats got no-hit through five innings in each of the final three games, not managing a hit until the eighth in the finale. As such, we have to go back to the last time they won a game to find a worthy candidate for At-Bat of the Week. It was certainly a deserving nominee, as Jasson Domínguez hit a home run from the right side off none other
than Tarik Skubal.
We join Domínguez with two outs in the sixth inning last Wednesday at Comerica Park. The score is tied, 2-2, a pair of Paul Goldschmidt home runs in the first and third negated by the Tigers scoring in the second and fourth. Skubal has struck out the first two batters in the frame, but a Ben Rice single keeps the inning alive.
Skubal has already struck Domínguez out twice in his previous two ABs, both times throwing one high fastball and three changeups low and away. As such, you have to imagine that Domínguez is hunting the changeup in this encounter. He doesn’t get it from Skubal first pitch, who starts this AB with a 97 mph four-seamer up and in.
This is probably the best pitch Jasson has gotten to hit to this point, and it almost seems like it surprises him, the bat never leaving his shoulder on a very hittable pitch.
When Skubal is at his best, he establishes that fastball up and in to righties, which makes the low and away changeup all the more deadly.
This is such an unfair sequence from Skubal for the first two pitches of an AB. Look at the way he tunnels the changeup off the first-pitch four-seamer that landed for a called strike. Out of the hand, the change looks exactly like the pitch Domínguez just took, so it is no surprise to see him fooled into chasing and whiffing early over the top of the off-speed.
Just like that, Jasson finds him self in the hole, 0-2, facing one of the best strikeout artists of his generation. Now that Skubal has gotten Jasson to swing over the top of a changeup down and away, setting the hitter’s eye level down, he has the situation perfectly set up for a fastball above the zone.
Jasson fires an impressive swing to foul this pitch away. It’s excellent execution from Skubal, the 98 mph four-seamer close enough to the zone that the hitter has to swing but elevated in a spot that makes it really hard for Jasson to put it in play.
Now that Skubal has seen a willingness from Jasson to expand against the elevated heater, the obvious pitch here is another fastball just a little higher than the previous one.
It’s classic climbing the ladder from Skubal, this four-seamer in the same spot laterally over the plate but elevated a few inches higher than the one that preceded it. Therefore, it is a good take from Jasson, who we can see initially starts his swing before recognizing that this pitch is too high.
Skubal likely senses that Domínguez can still be tempted into chasing a high fastball with a little better execution, because he throws his third straight four-seamer up and away.
This one catches a lot more of the plate than the last two. Domínguez has clearly adapted a two-strike approach by this point, letting the ball travel before fighting it off with a late but still well-balanced swing.
Now that Skubal has shown Domínguez three straight four-seamers up and away, he looks to steal a strikeout looking by attempting to front-door a sinker. To the hitter, it should look like four-seamer in off the plate. Many might give up early on that pitch, only for the sinker’s 10 inches more arm-side movement to carry it back to the corner.
Skubal can’t quite execute to his spot, sailing this sinker a bit high. This pitch starts as a ball out of Skubal’s hand and doesn’t drop enough on its path toward home, making for a pretty straightforward take from Domínguez.
Four straight heaters should have sufficiently sped up Domínguez’s bat to make the changeup a killer option.
Had Skubal executed to the corner, I think this AB would have ended here. However, this pitch catches a fat chunk of the zone, so despite being early with his swing, Domínguez is able to foul it off to stay alive. Jasson likely wishes he could have this pitch back – the first real mistake he has seen – but that is the effect of all the prior fastballs to speed up his bat.
Hanging that changeup scares Skubal off the pitch temporarily, and he goes back to the strategy of trying to throw the elevated heater by Domínguez.
Skubal doesn’t quite finish this pitch and it stays up and away for ball three. Good eye from Domínguez to halt his swing.
Jasson has done an admirable job grinding back from 0-2 to a full count. Four of the last five fastballs he has seen have been high and out of the zone, so he’s getting a good sense of where Skubal’s misses are. What’s more, I had the sense watching this entire AB unfold that Jasson never moved away from sitting on a changeup in a hittable zone just from the way he was fouling off those high fastballs. He knows that pitch is probably his best shot at doing damage as he’s just not catching up to the heater.
Domínguez’s patience is rewarded, Skubal throwing his second mistake changeup of the encounter. Unlike the one he fouled off two pitches ago, Jasson doesn’t miss this time. He wins the nine-pitch battle, barreling the pitch over the wall in left for the go-ahead two-run home run, an impressive place to go yard as a righty in Comerica Park.
Here’s the full AB:
This encounter was the epitome of a “good AB” as Aaron Boone is wont to say. Domínguez quickly fell behind 0-2 but didn’t panic, making sure to foul off close pitches to stay alive. He didn’t expand the zone when Skubal tried to get him to chase, eventually battling back to work the count full. And finally, when his hard work was paid off by a mistake in the zone, he did not miss it and punished it to the fullest, which is the only way you are going to beat a starter of Skubal’s quality.
Domínguez’s improvement batting from the right hand side is a serious developmental win for the 23-year-old. Last year, Domínguez batted .204 with a 32.7-percent strikeout rate and 63 wRC+ from the right side vs. a .274 average, 24.9-percent strikeout rate, and 116 wRC+ batting lefty. This year, those splits have flipped, with Domínguez now batting .270 with a 23.1-percent strikeout rate and 105 wRC+ from the right side vs. just a .182 average, 21.3-percent strikeout rate, and 69 wRC+ batting lefty. He has now experienced success from both sides of the plate in separate years, the question now is whether he can combine those on a consistent basis.
