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Jhoan Duran has Been Really Good this Season
Published:
The Phils gutted out a 4-3 win against San Diego late Tuesday night with Jhoan Duran going 1-2-3 in the ninth:
It’s 17 games of 1.62 ERA baseball for Duran this season. He’s 11 for 11 in save opportunities and has allowed just 12 hits. The WHIP is down to 1.02 and he’s striking out 14.04 batters per nine innings. He’s pitched four out of the last five days and will no doubt be unavailable on Wednesday night, so here’s hoping Cristopher Sanchez gives the Phils some length in SoCal as they go for the sweep and try to push a couple of games above .500.
This is a good stat:
The Statcast data shows the splitter sitting around 97.5 mph. The put away percentage on that pitch is 45.5. The four seamer is right there at 100.1 MPH with a 31.3 put away percent and Duran is throwing the knuckle curve, changeup, and sweeper at 10%, 9.6%, and 9.2%.
Going through the year-to-year changes, his first pitch strike rate is down about 11.3 percent, but his strikeout percentage is up by 10.8, and most of the +/- changes are negligible across the board.
Duran is one of three closers with a perfect save rate, along with Mason Miller and Aroldis Chapman. Miller has a ridiculous 52.2% K rate and Chapman an equally ridiculous 0.51 ERA. Cade Smith leads the way in total saves with 18 while posting a 2.45 ERA across 25.2 innings. But Duran is right up there near the top despite having a brief IL stint not that long ago.
It’s good to have some reassurance at the closer position after the Corey Knebel and Craig Kimbrel era, which segued into a committee situation with 20 games of Carlos Estevez, no relation to Emilio. The Phils have had probably only three top-tier closers this century in Brad Lidge, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jose Mesa, and Duran right now has a better ERA than Lidge did in 2008.
So we appreciate it while we have it.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com