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Jhoan Duran has Thrown One Pitch Below 98 MPH Since Coming to the Phillies
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
I don’t know if ESPN was juicing the speed gun last night, but Jhoan Duran was throwing straight gas:
He touched 102, 102, 103, 102, 103, and 103 in his last six pitches. That’s insane. The Phillies crowd might have him touching 105 mph in October. No change up, no curveball. Nothing but fucking gas! He’s now thrown 16 pitches since coming to Philadelphia and the only one below 98 MPH was a 97 mile-an-hour splitter.
How awesome was Sunday night? We were given the chance to either watch Cristopher Sanchez throw a complete game or Duran’s entrance. An embarrassment of riches right now for Phillies fans. The Phils chose the Durantula and he now holds the record for fastest pitch in Citizens Bank Park history:
This Duran move might go down as Dave Dombrowski’s best when it’s all said and done. I don’t know about anyone else, but the dog days of summer were starting to feel like we were slogging through the season just waiting for the playoffs to start. I badly needed this shot in the arm that Duran has provided. Something that you could get excited about. Watching everyone pull their phones out and seeing that giant spider walking across the right-field wall is perfect.
Speaking of the spider, Matt Gelb from The Athletic (with ads) had an awesome story about the Twins sending over their entire graphics package and the song so that the Phils could pull it off on Friday. It’s an awesome read and shows you everything that goes into the behind the scenes. I think my favorite part was that the Phillies production staff had to do it by hand because they couldn’t program it in time. Then, when it started, the touchscreen froze for a couple seconds:
Whenever the Phillies build a new ballpark feature, they have someone program it so all it takes is one button to initiate the light show, scoreboard graphics and music. They did not have enough time to properly program Duran’s entrance. So, inside the scoreboard operations room Friday night, everyone had a task. Mark DiNardo, the club’s director of broadcasting and video services, took the button that would kill the ballpark’s lights once Duran exited the bullpen.
The touch screen froze.
“At that moment, your heart’s in your throat,” DiNardo said. “But you’ve got so much adrenaline going into that moment.”
The lights didn’t go dark when they were supposed to. Finally, a few seconds late, the button worked. Every other component fired as expected.
“How many times have you watched Duran’s entrance?”
Yes.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com