Honestly, it was just a matter of time before Kane County Cougars pitcher Jon Duplantier was named our MWL pitcher of the week. The 22 year old righty out of Newark, Delaware has been extremely close to perfect so far this season. Duplantier has given up just three earned runs through 36.1 innings, and all three of those runs came in the same game. They key to the 6’4 fireballer’s success this year has been commanding his pitches. With just eight walks and 48 strikeouts in seven games, Duplantier is putting the rest of the Midwest League, and certainly the Diamondbacks, on notice.
As great as he has been all year, we are here to focus on the past week alone, which is just fine considering his dominance has continued. Duplantier made two starts last week, the first of which was on Monday against the Great Lakes Loons and the second against the Lansing Lugnuts.
Image Courtesy of MiLB.com
In Monday’s contest against the Loons, Duplantier threw just 66 pitches, 49 of which were strikes, in his six innings of work. The Rice University product allowed just four hits and one unearned run against the defending Midwest League champs. He also struck out seven while walking, you guessed it, none.
Duplantier tossed five more innings five days later, this time against the third highest scoring team in the league, the Lansing Lugnuts. While the opposing team possessed the highest overall batting average in the league, Duplantier held them to just two hits through his five innings. Allowing no runs on the day, it marked the fourth start of the season where Duplantier hadn’t allowed an opponent to cross the plate, lowering his ERA to 0.74 on the season. With the command on point yet again, Duplantier tied a season high for strikeouts with eight while issuing one free pass.
Duplantier is sitting atop the leaderboards in several pitching categories. He picked up two wins this past week, which were surprisingly just his second and third on the season. He will more than likely make his next start in the back end of a doubleheader on Wednesday against the Beloit Snappers. It is highly recommended that you tune in and watch the devastating fastballs as Duplantier looks to continue mowing through opposing batters in his 2017 season.
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