ATLANTA — Jose Bautista says his fans should not worry. The home-run swing will return. He just doesn’t know when it will come.
The slugger admits that he’s searching for the plate discipline that served him so well over the first two months of the season.
“My swing is not lost. I feel good at the plate and I’m seeing the ball decent,” Bautista said before another fruitless night for himself and his Toronto Blue Jays.
Bautista went 0-for-4 in the Jays’ 5-1 loss to Atlanta and starter Mike Minor, who was recently recalled from the minors.
It was a rough night too for Toronto’s rookie starter, Zach Stewart, who lasted only 3 2/3 innings after a solid major-league debut last week.
Stewart gave up 10 hits and five runs, including a two-run homer by Brian McCann.
“I guess that’s what you find out is the difference between the major leagues and the minor leagues — the amount of mistakes they’ll let you make. I made too many,” said Stewart, who was pitching at double-A New Hampshire just over a week ago.
Bautista has 21 homers but just one in June. He came close to another in the first inning, but Nate McClouth made a leaping catch at the left-field wall.
The Jays managed only five hits. Adam Lind had two, including an RBI single in the first inning.
Before the game, Bautista said no one should be surprised that the precise timing that powered his swing for two months has turned inconsistent.
He entered the game batting .330 for the season and .242 for June.
“Right now I don’t feel like I’m struggling,” he said. “I’m getting on base and I’m getting my hits. It’s just that I’m not hitting home runs right now.”
After two months of astonishing plate discipline — Bautista seemed rarely tempted by a pitch he didn’t like — he’s seeing fewer good pitches to hit and going after more bad ones.
“You can go for a whole week and not swing at one bad pitch,” he said, referring to his April and May. “And then you can swing at five bad pitches in one night. It depends on how you’re seeing it and how you feel.”
The key is consistency, and there is no explaining it when it eludes him, he said. It may come and go within the same at-bat.
He cited an at-bat in which he was retired on a 3-1 pitch.
“I was patient enough to get to the 3-1 count, but then I swung at a pitch that might’ve been a ball, might’ve been a strike but it’s not what I’m looking for.”
Some nights he sees only one or two good pitches to hit, he said.
Bautista is quick to admit his faults and to credit a pitcher for getting the best of him.
On Monday night, for example, Braves’ starter Tim Hudson teased him for eight innings and closer Craig Kimbrell blew him away in the ninth.
“Hudson was working kind of around me, hitting the edges,” he said. “The last guy just came right at me, something unexpected. I went from seeing 90 miles an hour to the other guy throwing 98.”
Kimbrell’s unusual across-the-body delivery and high-90s heat “caught me by surprise,” Bautista said. He struck out on four pitches.
“Sometimes it’s hard to make that quick adjustment from one at-bat to the other with a pitching change. . . . Believe me, that guy has some electric stuff.”
National Post
The slugger admits that he’s searching for the plate discipline that served him so well over the first two months of the season.
“My swing is not lost. I feel good at the plate and I’m seeing the ball decent,” Bautista said before another fruitless night for himself and his Toronto Blue Jays.
Bautista went 0-for-4 in the Jays’ 5-1 loss to Atlanta and starter Mike Minor, who was recently recalled from the minors.
It was a rough night too for Toronto’s rookie starter, Zach Stewart, who lasted only 3 2/3 innings after a solid major-league debut last week.
Stewart gave up 10 hits and five runs, including a two-run homer by Brian McCann.
“I guess that’s what you find out is the difference between the major leagues and the minor leagues — the amount of mistakes they’ll let you make. I made too many,” said Stewart, who was pitching at double-A New Hampshire just over a week ago.
Bautista has 21 homers but just one in June. He came close to another in the first inning, but Nate McClouth made a leaping catch at the left-field wall.
The Jays managed only five hits. Adam Lind had two, including an RBI single in the first inning.
Before the game, Bautista said no one should be surprised that the precise timing that powered his swing for two months has turned inconsistent.
He entered the game batting .330 for the season and .242 for June.
“Right now I don’t feel like I’m struggling,” he said. “I’m getting on base and I’m getting my hits. It’s just that I’m not hitting home runs right now.”
After two months of astonishing plate discipline — Bautista seemed rarely tempted by a pitch he didn’t like — he’s seeing fewer good pitches to hit and going after more bad ones.
“You can go for a whole week and not swing at one bad pitch,” he said, referring to his April and May. “And then you can swing at five bad pitches in one night. It depends on how you’re seeing it and how you feel.”
The key is consistency, and there is no explaining it when it eludes him, he said. It may come and go within the same at-bat.
He cited an at-bat in which he was retired on a 3-1 pitch.
“I was patient enough to get to the 3-1 count, but then I swung at a pitch that might’ve been a ball, might’ve been a strike but it’s not what I’m looking for.”
Some nights he sees only one or two good pitches to hit, he said.
Bautista is quick to admit his faults and to credit a pitcher for getting the best of him.
On Monday night, for example, Braves’ starter Tim Hudson teased him for eight innings and closer Craig Kimbrell blew him away in the ninth.
“Hudson was working kind of around me, hitting the edges,” he said. “The last guy just came right at me, something unexpected. I went from seeing 90 miles an hour to the other guy throwing 98.”
Kimbrell’s unusual across-the-body delivery and high-90s heat “caught me by surprise,” Bautista said. He struck out on four pitches.
“Sometimes it’s hard to make that quick adjustment from one at-bat to the other with a pitching change. . . . Believe me, that guy has some electric stuff.”
National Post
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