I wasn’t listening/watching allard’s 2 appearances. Obviously the velocity has been discussed here a lot, but how has he looked other than that? The 3 Ks are obviously bad, but no hits looks nice... has he just been lucky with hard contact being caught or what?
He has also hit a batter. Allowing 4 free base runners in 3 IP is not good when you're a control LHP that throws 89.
With no video I can't say how he looked today, but here is how I described his first inning in his ST debut:
"Allard was very underwhelming, even more so than I gathered from the comments here. No control over an 89 fastball. Gave up a walk and a rocket to RF that was miraculously turned into 2 outs by a great play. Then a warning track fly ball to Gonzo to end the inning. It’s clear why he has tumbled down prospect lists."
I don't think he has done anything to excite anyone. Pure luck got him out of the first inning unscathed. That catch in RF by Avery is a play Markakis has 0% chance of making. If Gonzo hit his fly ball into the same wind that killed Acuna's fly out earlier in the week, it would have been a bomb under normal conditions.
Without the baseball gods smiling on him, Allard could have very easily given up 3+ runs in his debut.
According to the game log, here is how Allard's 2 innings went today:
Walk (den Dekker)
Line out to RF (Rosario)
Walk (Nimmo)
Fly out to CF (Lobaton)
Fly out to CF (Tebow)
HBP (Alonso)
K Swinging (Borenstein)
GIDP (Cecchini)
That's 1 out via grounder (well, 2 since it was a DP) in 3 IP. Another less than good sign for a LHP throwing 89.
The liner to RF was caught by Santana, who has great range. How great of a play was it?
Did the wind eat up those fly balls to CF too, or were they poorly hit cans of corn?
This is why I wish we had video.