Alex Verdugo trusting his approach at the plate
Verdugo has struggled this season hitting .241 but has seen better results in June
The start of the season hasn’t gone exactly to plan for Red Sox left fielder Alex Verdugo. He has struggled at the plate for the first two months of the season. Verdugo hit .238 for the month of April and .219 in the month of May. Now that the calendar has turned to June, Verdugo is starting to hit the ball better and is hitting .286 in 56 at-bats this month.
Verdugo has played 60 games this season, he is hitting .241 with four homers, 33 RBIs and has a career low .283 on-base percentage. His performance at the plate is a stat line of a bench player, let alone the starting left fielder of the Red Sox.
The 26-year-old outfielder has been trying to make hard contact and spray the ball over the field. Red Sox manager Alex Cora thinks Verdugo is having good at-bats but he’s not seeing the results he wants. “He’s put [together] good at-bats. You don’t see the results,” said Cora.
Verdugo recently ended his home run drought this past week against the Athletics. He had gone a career-long 48 games and 210 plate appearances without a homer. Despite not hitting the ball out of the park and having offensive struggles to begin the season, he’s still trusting his approach at the plate.
“It comes and goes,” Verdugo said. “Certain days like, it weighs heavy and other days, it doesn’t matter. Go out there and get your hits. … I felt like I’ve been swinging the bat a lot better as of late and hitting some balls hard. Had some balls that could have gone, but hit them too low, so to finally get that right trajectory, felt good.”
As the season progresses, the Sox will need for Verdugo to continue to put together good consistent at-bats. The Red Sox outfielders haven’t hit the cover-off the ball at the plate. If the Red Sox can get Verdugo going again at the plate and he focuses on driving the ball into the gap for doubles and while letting the homers come, he’ll be another offensive weapon for Cora, again.
Check out Beyond the Monster: Alex Verdugo meets David Ortiz article, link here.
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