Breaking out of the "Middle" of the pack
Sam Galanis
Contributing Writer
After a phenomenal rookie season, as well as an amazing first week, Will Middlebrooks seemed to fall into a rough patch. He went from hitting three home runs (almost four) in one game against the Toronto Blue Jays to batting .093 and going 5-for-54 with 20 strikeouts.
But Middlebrooks is hoping that he has already turned that around. He had a four-game hitting streak going during the Houston Astros series that significantly raised his average. And he made it clear that his performance so far is not something that anyone should be worrying about.
“It’s not a confidence thing,” Middlebrooks said to Comcast Sports Network. “I never lost my confidence. It’s just the fact of missing the good pitches and when you get to [counts of] 2-2, 1-2, you’re forced to swing at their pitch. You just got to hit yours earlier in the count. It really snowballs even worse when you try to change things up, and I just wanted to stick with what I do.”
Moving on to only the fifth week of the season, there is a lot of time for Middlebrooks to improve, and it’s almost too early to get on his case. The Sox have only played 25 out of 162 games. In fact, the whole situation is very reminiscent of something Dustin Pedroia once said to NESN about David Ortiz in the beginning of the 2010 season.
And with that, I’ll leave you to reflect on Pedroia’s wise words. But this time, use them in the context of Middlebrooks.
“A couple years ago I had 60 at bats and was hitting .170, and everybody was ready to kill me too,” Pedroia said. “What happened? Laser show. So, relax.”
Comment or follow me @_SamMG
Contributing Writer
After a phenomenal rookie season, as well as an amazing first week, Will Middlebrooks seemed to fall into a rough patch. He went from hitting three home runs (almost four) in one game against the Toronto Blue Jays to batting .093 and going 5-for-54 with 20 strikeouts.
But Middlebrooks is hoping that he has already turned that around. He had a four-game hitting streak going during the Houston Astros series that significantly raised his average. And he made it clear that his performance so far is not something that anyone should be worrying about.
“It’s not a confidence thing,” Middlebrooks said to Comcast Sports Network. “I never lost my confidence. It’s just the fact of missing the good pitches and when you get to [counts of] 2-2, 1-2, you’re forced to swing at their pitch. You just got to hit yours earlier in the count. It really snowballs even worse when you try to change things up, and I just wanted to stick with what I do.”
Moving on to only the fifth week of the season, there is a lot of time for Middlebrooks to improve, and it’s almost too early to get on his case. The Sox have only played 25 out of 162 games. In fact, the whole situation is very reminiscent of something Dustin Pedroia once said to NESN about David Ortiz in the beginning of the 2010 season.
And with that, I’ll leave you to reflect on Pedroia’s wise words. But this time, use them in the context of Middlebrooks.
“A couple years ago I had 60 at bats and was hitting .170, and everybody was ready to kill me too,” Pedroia said. “What happened? Laser show. So, relax.”
Comment or follow me @_SamMG
