Patience Pays Off For Boesch
When Brennan Boesch was hitting under .200 during the second half of last season, he might have wondered many times if he was ever going to get a hit again.
But a winter of reflection plus some work and determination seem to have made those bad times count for something good.
Boesch slammed a game-winning home run in the eighth inning Tuesday, breaking a tie and giving Detroit a 6-5 victory over Texas. It was his third hit of the game.
He had a good first half, but when he came out of the All-Star break 4-for-22 in the first two series, the talks of another second-half disaster began to be heard.
There were differences, however.
Last year, Boesch began the second half swinging at anything, close to the plate or not, as pitchers turned his aggressiveness against him. Why throw strikes, they reasoned, if the kid will flail at balls?
This season, his aggressiveness was a little more channeled. He was looking at more pitches per plate appearance and is becoming adept at working the count. Plus his situational awareness is way, way up.
Look at his home run at-bat against AL newcomer Mike Adams, just acquired from San Diego by Texas.
Boesch was down 0-2 for four straight foul balls in an eight-pitch at-bat featuring a mixture of fastballs and sliders. He took ball one and then hammered a badly placed slider over the fence in right for his 16th home run of the season.
He is 13-for-43 (.302) since the first two series after the break, and his batting average has been around .300 for more than a week. That's a lot different than a year ago.
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