The Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Angels started a pivotal four-game set on Thursday night.
The reigning World Series champs took round one with a 5-2 victory.
They were the better team and dominated the Angels, with the notable exception of one inning.
Yes, that’s when Ben Joyce was on the mound for LA.
Joyce is a rookie who completely skipped Triple-A and was called up to the majors a few days ago.
He has two scoreless innings already, with four strikeouts and no walks.
The most impressive fact about Joyce is not his performance; it’s how he achieves it.
Look at his velocity readings from Thursday night.
Ben Joyce's second MLB outing:
102.1 mph
102.3
101.9
101.3
101.3
101.6
101.1
102.9
101.1
101.9The @Angels flamethrower navigates the top of the Houston order, whiffing a former MVP in the process: pic.twitter.com/z7k4l7gCVk
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 2, 2023
The slowest pitch he threw was 101.1 mph.
101.1 mph!
That was the slowest.
He peaked at 102.9 mph.
We can’t even understand how can a human being throw a baseball that hard.
Joyce’s fastball also boasts that incredible rising effect, which is not really rising as much as postponing the effects of gravity.
That makes his fastball that much harder to hit, let alone square.
On Thursday, he conceded a hit, but earned two strikeouts including victimizing 2017 AL MVP Jose Altuve.
As long as the Angels have him in their bullpen, they will have a good chance of securing a lead.
Joyce could potentially be wild at times (he walked 13 in 15.2 innings in Double-A this year before getting the call) but his incredible fastball gives hitter a tiny margin for error and himself great odds of succeeding at the major league level.
He is off to an incredible start.
NEXT: Video Shows The Pure Power Of A Shohei Ohtani Swing
