Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m still thinking about the completely bonkers ending to Friday night’s Yankees-Marlins game.
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In today’s SI:AM:
🏎️ Speedway Classic
⚾ MLB power rankings
🏈 Best college football teams of the century
Duran brings the heat
Jhoan Duran has been a member of the Phillies for less than a week and he’s already setting franchise records.
The Phillies acquired Duran at the trade deadline from the Twins to be their new closer after going with a closer-by-committee approach in the first four months of the season. Duran has been one of the most dominant relief pitchers in the majors since he made his debut in 2022, mostly thanks to a blazing fastball that is among the fastest in the history of the game. It’s topped out at 104.8 mph. Only three pitchers on record have thrown a pitch faster than that (Aroldis Chapman, Ben Joyce and Jordan Hicks).
Duran announced his arrival in Philadelphia with a bang on Friday night—not only requiring just four pitches to close out a 5–4 win over the Tigers, but also doing so after making a theatrical entrance. The Twins actually coordinated with the Phillies to bring Duran’s signature entrance to Philadelphia after the trade.
“We collectively thought, ‘This is for the greater good of baseball fans,’” Twins vice president of communications and public affairs Dustin Morse told The Athletic’s Matt Gelb.
A first impression like that is tough to live up to, but Duran was just as sharp on Sunday night. He had another three up, three down save and set a Phillies franchise record in the process. Duran’s second-to-last pitch of the night, a fastball to Detroit’s Riley Greene, was clocked at 103.3 mph, the fastest pitch thrown by any Phillies player in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008).
Duran followed that up with another blazing fastball to strike out Greene and end the game. That pitch was a comparatively sluggish 102.5 mph.
103 🔥
— MLB (@MLB) August 4, 2025
Jhoan Duran ends the game with some serious HEAT! pic.twitter.com/gX9K6Jz0Ii
The previous record for the fastest pitch thrown by a Phillie was 102.5 mph by José Alvarado. Duran matched or exceeded that mark four times during the Greene at-bat alone. In fact, there have been 19 pitches of at least 102 mph by Phillies pitchers in the pitch-tracking era and six of them have been thrown by Duran. He’s only thrown 16 pitches in a Phillies uniform.
Duran, though, doesn’t really see what the big deal is.
“It feels normal for me,” he said after the game. “I don’t think about it too much. I don’t think about how fast I’m throwing. It’s more like if I can control the fastball.”
The Duran trade could end up being one of the most significant moves made at the deadline. The Phillies ranked 26th in the majors in bullpen ERA before adding Duran. They’ve blown 17 saves this season, tied for 12th most in the majors. Having someone as reliable as Duran to hand the ball to in the ninth is critical for a team that’s locked in a tight division race with the Mets. And perhaps best of all, Duran is under contract through the end of the 2027 season. Phillies fans are going to have plenty more chances to see him light up the radar gun.
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1. Rays left fielder Jake Mangum’s leaping home run robbery.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Jhoan Duran Sets Phillies Pitch Velocity Record in Lights-Out Outing.
