Red Sox manager offers advice to Triston Casas before big day in Baltimore: ‘Let it eat’
When Red Sox manager Alex Cora talks to Triston Casas in Spanish, it gets the attention of the young slugger.
“He knows when I talk to him in Spanish, it means something,” Cora said before Thursday’s game. “And he felt like he was actually being aggressive. And I was like, ‘You look passive at the plate.’ So just let it eat.”
Casas responded to Cora’s speech, entering the game just 2-for-21 with no extra base hits on the season; the first baseman had his best offensive game of the season. He belted a 377-foot two-run homer to left-center field in the seventh inning to put Boston ahead 7-3. His first blast came off left-hander Keegan Akin.
“Being selective, it’s a two-way street. It’s a push and a pull,” Casas said. “You can’t have too much of one thing because they’ll take advantage of it, and too much of the other isn’t productive. It’s something I’ll bounce around with throughout the season.”
The first baseman finished the afternoon 2-for-5 with the homer, two RBI, and two strikeouts.
“Being aggressive and being passive is a two-way street,” Casas said. “It’s a push and a pull. You’re too much of one, and they’ll take advantage of it. And too much of the other, it’s not productive. So it’s gonna be something I balance throughout the year. Coming into the season, I wasn’t sure which direction I was gonna start. Got a lot of fastballs in Texas, as well as here. So I’ve been getting attacked. And I think that’s just his message to me, as if they’re gonna attack me in the zone to go right back at it and swing hard.”
Observing Casas take pitches early in at-bats inspired Cora's advice.
“I’m gonna apply it as much as I can,” Casas said. “Don’t want to lose what I do well, which is taking those fringe pitches. But yeah, striking out looking is unacceptable in certain situations, and that needs to get cleaned up.”
Casas made Akin pay after he left a 93 mph heater over the heart of the plate, sending his first homer to the opposite field.
“Felt great,” Casas said. “Not probably where he wanted to put it right there. I just capitalized on a mistake. I’m sure if you ask him, he’d say he wanted it a little more up. But credit to me just trying to put the ball in play right there after Alex (Bregman’s) two-out double. I felt like I needed to put the ball in play.
“Whenever there’s runners in scoring position and two outs, I put an emphasis on just putting the ball in play,” he added. “And maybe that’s gonna be the recipe for success going forward. Just shorten it up and try to put a ball in play instead of getting big in certain situations.”
This spring, Casas emphasized trying to send the ball the other way with the hopes of taking advantage of the Green Monster in left-center field.
“But when you’re late on fastballs, it makes you susceptible to being early on off-speed pitches just because you feel like you need to get the head out a little bit earlier,” he said. “So as I see more pitches and the ball starts to slow down and I get to a certain at-bat mark where I feel pretty locked in, I’m sure that left-center gap’s gonna get hit more often than it is right now. But yeah, it’s gonna be part of my game, hitting the ball to the opposite field, especially at home. So I’m not gonna harp too much about staying inside the ball or trying to filet it the other way. But to drive the ball to the opposite field feels good. And today was a step in the right direction.”
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