I had the displeasure of seeing Porter Hodge get blown up in his latest outing against the Twins, and I have a few concerns. But I’m also not sure what was going on with the pitch sequencing last night.
The big concern I have is with his 4-seam fastball velocity. He’s averaging 95.8 mph on his four-seamer this season. However, last night, here are the speeds of his fastballs:
1. 94.5 (ball to Buxton)
2. 94.1 (ball to Buxton)
3. 94.3 (HR by Jeffers)
4. 95.1 (strike to Correa)
5. 95.2 (strike to Correa)
6. 95.2 (ball to Lewis)
7. 95.2 (ball to Lewis)
8. 96.5 (ball to Lewis)
9. 94 (ball to Leiws)
10. 95.1 (single by Lewis)
11. 93.1 (ball to Bader)
12. 95.1 (ball to France)
13. 95 (strike to France)
14. 95.3 foul ball by France)
15. 94.1 (ball to France)
16. 94.8 (strike to France for SO)
That’s 16 fastballs, and only 1 got over his average velocity. The overall average was 94.8, a full mph under what he’s done for the year. And the strike to ball ration was 9 balls and 7 strikes. He was at 95.1 against the Cardinals on Saturday, so this is not just a one game blip.
The other issue I have from last night was the sequencing and locations of his sweeper. He seems to be much more comfortable throwing that pitch for a strike, but he got in trouble throwing it in the same location twice in a row three times last night.
He threw 2 sweepers to Willi Castro, and the 2nd got knocked out of the park
Carlos Correa got 2 straight sweepers, and the 2nd one in the zone got hit for a double:
And Harrison Bader got 2 straight sweepers, with a homer on the 2nd one:
With only 2 pitches in his arsenal, Hodge really needs to be able to throw the fastball for strikes, and keep the sweeper out of the center of the zone if he’s going to be effective. It really seems like the Twins were sitting on the sweeper last night. I’m not sure if the oblique injury is still lingering, slightly impacting his fastball velocity.
Hodge does have options, and if he has another game like last night, I would not be shocked if he got some time in Iowa to see if he can get things right.
EDIT: Brett Taylor from Bleacher Nation has similar concerns regarding Hodge: https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2025/07/09/porter-hodges-particularly-ugly-night-and-where-it-goes-from-here/
Cubs in 7 
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