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Highlights from the Oakland A’s win Wednesday will consist of a few moments: Mark Canha’s two-run home run. Robbie Grossman’s RBI ground-rule double. Jesús Luzardo’s 6 1/3 shutout innings.
Matt Chapman’s double that set up Canha’s home run may be in there, but certainly not included: Wednesday’s win was the first game this season in which Chapman didn’t record a strikeout.
“My main focus yesterday was to just control the strike zone a little bit better,” Chapman said Thursday on a call with reporters.
Strikeouts have been the A’s vice thus far. Asked Thursday afternoon if he was at all concerned with the high strikeout rate, Chapman was pridefully oblivious.
“Do we have a lot?” he asked.
The A’s lead the league with 251, he was told.
“Oh, I didn’t even know,” he said. “I guess that answers your question right there. It doesn’t matter to us. We’ve got the best record in the American League, that’s what matters.”
This exchange reveals a team characteristic that is perhaps points to their success. Collective statistics aren’t so much a concern as long as each player identifies individual improvements. Chapman’s no-strikeout Wednesday is a case in point.
Just 25 games into the season, the third baseman dabbled in a few hot and cold streaks. His latest hot streak saw a .407 average with a triple, four doubles and four home runs in six games against the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim.
“Sometimes when I get into a stretch like that, I feel like I can hit everything,” Chapman said.
The hot streak quickly froze into a cold one, in which he batted .108 with eight strikeouts in the next six games against the San Francisco Giants and Diamondbacks.
A’s assistant hitting coach Eric Martins articulated the coaching staff is only concerned about strikeout counts when its clear individuals are chasing out of the zone. Chapman, who leads the team with 34 strikeouts, tends to fall into that pattern. Feeling like he could hit anything after that hot streak, he started to do too much and expanded the zone.
He’s starting to rein himself back in again, he said.
“That was my biggest focus, was to swing at the right pitches and then kind of go from there,” he said. “I like my swing, when I’m in a good position to hit it, I’m taking a good swing. I’m hitting some balls.”
Chapman’s next step will be to build off honed pitch selection and get ready in his swing a little earlier so that he can give himself more time to make a move toward the baseball or lay off the pitch.
“Yesterday I hit that double on a 2-0 changeup,” he said. “So I have to be really disciplined, the earlier I can get set up and use my eyes to see the ball, the better.”
Too early to scoreboard watch?
The season is 25 games old, but five weeks of the regular season remain. With the A’s still sitting atop the American League West, Chapman is not shy about scoreboard watching.
Odd season or not, …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Sports
