Statcast of the Day: What a relief!

In a postseason that’s rapidly redefining how we think about modern relievers, Aroldis Chapman couldn’t let Andrew Miller and Kenley Jansen have all the fun. Chapman pitched a career-high 2 2/3 scoreless innings on Sunday night as the Cubs topped the Indians, 3-2, in Game 5 to send the series back to Ohio, and he also set a postseason record (since data was first kept in 2008) for most pitches in a game over 100 mph with 19.

You know the Chapman story by now, or you ought to. He throws insanely hard (by himself, he owns 40.8 percent of all Major League pitches tracked at 100 mph or above), and he racks up record-setting strikeout totals. Chapman did both of those things in Game 5. But he also showed off the other thing that makes velocity so dangerous — when he did allow hitters to make contact, it was almost always bad contact.

• World Series Game 6: Tuesday, 7:30 ET air time | 8 ET game time on FOX

Think about it from the hitter’s perspective. We’ve known for a while that when a hitter makes contact, two important things have to happen to ensure success. First, obviously, you need to hit it hard; the Major League average on balls hit 100 mph or harder this year was .629. And secondly, you need to hit it at the right launch angle, because if you hit it straight up or pound it into the ground, then it doesn’t really matter how hard you hit it — it won’t be a hit.

Game Date Time (air time/game time) Matchup TV Gm 1 Oct. 25   CLE 6, CHC 0 Gm 2 Oct. 26   CHC 5, CLE 1 Gm 3 Oct. 28   CLE 1, CHC 0 Gm 4 Oct. 29   CLE 7, …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com