Seiya Suzuki’s first at-bat since Friday ended with a recurring sight over the previous couple of weeks.
In a good matchup in opposition to left-handed reliever Brooks Raley within the eighth inning of Monday’s loss to the New York Mets, Suzuki fell behind 1-2 within the depend earlier than a caught-in-the-middle half-swing on a changeup down and out of the zone ended his pinch-hitting look with a strikeout.
Chicago Cubs supervisor David Ross gave Suzuki a psychological reset after a hitless, two-strikeout efficiency Friday in opposition to the Atlanta Braves, who began lefty Max Fried. In the second season of a five-year, $85 million contract, Suzuki has began solely two of the Cubs’ eight video games in August. He’s hitting .215 in 20 video games for the reason that All-Star break whereas struggling to attract walks, contributing to a .276 on-base share.
“When things don’t really work out, obviously for a long stretch, it becomes a mental thing,” Suzuki stated Tuesday by means of interpreter Toy Matsushita. “During that span, I simply couldn’t manage what was the very first thing to work on.
“The other guys that are out there are the guys who are getting results, so that’s just part of the game. That’s where I’ve got to step up and make sure I can get my spot back.”
Suzuki can be again within the lineup Wednesday in opposition to Mets left-hander David Peterson, Ross stated Tuesday. Mike Tauchman’s reliability has allowed Ross to benefit from Tauchman’s high quality at-bats relationship to mid-June. He has a .277/.346/.482 slash line and 16 extra-base hits in that 38-game span.
Tauchman once more got here by means of for the Cubs in Tuesday’s 3-2 win at Citi Field, connecting for the go-ahead residence run within the eighth inning. The Cubs returned to 1 1/2 video games behind the Milwaukee Brewers, who misplaced in 10 innings to the Colorado Rockies.
Confidence comes with outcomes, which have eluded Suzuki too usually, and never being within the lineup recently hasn’t helped. Suzuki famous, although, that “I‘m confident in what I did to get here, and so now all I need to do is get out there, get those results and I think I’ll get more confidence.”
The Cubs’ offensive success during the last couple of weeks created the chance to bench Suzuki and let him work by means of his struggles. The Cubs nonetheless imagine in Suzuki and know there’s a nice hitter inside him that also could make an impression for this group. Sometimes being faraway from the day-to-day grind may help a hitter refocus and work by means of mechanical points along with his swing.
“All these guys are hypercompetitive and they want to be in there, they want to help the team win,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly informed the Tribune. “I believe he understood the prospect for him to take a step again, iron out a few issues that we’ve been speaking about mechanically, but in addition dialing within the strategy and get again on the fastball timing.
“When you sit back and watch the game a little bit, you realize that it’s not quite as fast as what you’ve been making it. I think that’s what’s happened — things started to speed up on him a little bit.”
The mechanical changes have centered on Suzuki’s head motion. The extra his head and eyes transfer, Kelly defined, pitch recognition goes out the window.
“We’ve really talked about steadying the head and being in a really good hitting position as he starts going forward, and I think mechanically he’s got that part out of the way,” Kelly stated. “He’s in a really good spot. Now it becomes plan, approach, sticking to that approach and just being confident.”
When a hitter will get out of sync on the plate, it may be difficult to push by means of these stretches whereas trying to find what to work on. Suzuki has felt higher along with his swing and been inspired by his batting follow classes, however “when I get into the game, I guess I get too eager to get those results.”
“So to get those results,” he stated, “I feel like I need to relax a little bit more and just be more calm, and that’s what I’m going to do when I get in the box.”
The hesitation Suzuki exhibits in moments corresponding to Monday’s pinch-hitting look, when he will get caught with an indecisive swing, repeatedly has put him in dangerous positions.
“I feel like I’ve been swinging at pitches that I didn’t want to,” he stated. “All I need to do is just be more relaxed, be more calm, be more confident, and that’s what I’m trying to do moving forward.”
Suzuki is his harshest critic, holding himself to such a excessive customary that even good video games don’t fulfill him. As he works by means of the hardest stretch of his younger MLB profession, he nonetheless is studying about himself too.
“When I think about too many things,” he stated, “it’s not going to be good for me.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com