Cleveland Indians outfielder Jordan Luplow continues his run of dominance over lefty Chicago White Sox pitcher Manny Banuelos.
Sometimes a hitter just has a pitcher’s number. That appears to be the case with Jordan Luplow when facing Manny Banuelos. The Indians outfielder has quite the impressive track record against the White Sox hurler. This success continued in Thursday night’s loss to Chicago.
Luplow went yard yet again off of Banuelos. In his career Luplow is 4-8 when facing Banuelos. The quirky part of that is that all four hits are home runs. This is just another one of those weird statistics about a particular batter when facing a pitcher. Indians manager Terry Francona knows just who to go to when facing Manny Banuelos and that is Jordan Luplow.
Luplow is the definition of platoon hitter, he is more successful against left handers than right handers.
7 -42 vs. RHP .167/.200/.190/.390 one double, three RBI’s, 12 strikeouts
15-48 vs. LHP .313/.377/.813/1.190 three doubles, seven home runs, 11 RBI’s, 15 strikeouts
The difference is staggering. Even factoring out his at-bats against Banuelos, Luplow is still 11-40 with three doubles and two long balls against left handed pitching. Looking at Luplow’s overall line he is 18-82 overall this season, (granted, the majority of his success comes against left handed pitching).
It would be nice if the Cleveland Indians could face Banuelos every time out. Jordan Luplow would put up ridiculous numbers. Luplow has only faced Banuelos over the course of four games, but more matchups could be in the future. Chicago is a division rival of Cleveland and Luplow will only get more familiar with Banuelos. This should lead to more success against the White Sox for their right handed platoon outfielder. Jordan Luplow appears to be an integral fourth outfielder, especially when facing left handed pitching.
