Minnesota Twins reliever Jhoan Duran is regarded by most to be one of the best closers in all of baseball since his debut last season. He showed exactly why many fans have that lofty opinion of him with a dominant outing on Wednesday that featured the fastest pitch of the MLB season thus far.
Duran came into Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners in the bottom of the ninth inning with a 6-3 lead. The three-run lead would be plenty, as he would get through the inning unscathed thanks to his ridiculous velocity.
He ended up getting the second out of the inning on a 104.8 MPH fastball that Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez grounded out on. He then got the final at-bat on a 104.0 MPH strikeout of Mariners first baseman Mike Ford.
Jhoan Duran throws a 104.8 mph fastball (the fastest pitch in MLB this season) to get a groundout, then follows it up with a strikeout on a 104 mph fastball to give the Twins a win in Seattle. ⚾️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/hSpvXJeUby
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) July 20, 2023
The 104.8 MPH pitch from Duran is the fastest of any pitcher this season, and had some nasty upward movement on it that makes the pitch nearly unhittable.
According to MLB’s Sarah Langs, Duran actually had four pitches in Wednesday’s outing that were 104 MPH or higher. He is just behind Aroldis Chapman and Jordan Hicks for the most pitcher of that speed since 2008.
pitchers to throw 104.0+ mph pitches, pitch-tracking era (2008):
Aroldis Chapman: 66
Jordan Hicks: 13
Jhoan Duran: 9 ** 4 in today’s game
Ryan Helsley: 2
Mauricio Cabrera: 1
Tayron Guerrero: 1
Camilo Doval: 1
Neftali Feliz: 1 pic.twitter.com/950oy5UG9l— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) July 20, 2023
It certainly seems like the sky is the limit for Duran, who is just 25 years of age and already seems to have control of this ridiculous velocity on the mound.
