![]() Having a productive Bogaerts and Napoli in the middle of its batting order makes Boston a far more potent offensive team – especially against lefties, against whom the Red Sox had performed woefully before this weekend’s outbursts against C.J. “I think it’s cool to go up to the kids and say, ‘Hey, let me get your autograph.’ They love that.” “Everyone is always asking for my autograph,” he said. He hit all five of his home runs this week with his Ethan-signed bat. Napoli since his arrival in Boston two years ago has quietly asked young fans visiting the field before games to sign his bat, turning the tables on the conventional. ![]() Napoli also had a secret weapon – a young fan named Ethan who autographed his bat earlier in the week. “He’s finally gotten to a point where his hands are relaxed and in a spot where, when he loads, they can go where they want to go.” “Nap has been working, working, working for that feel,” Davis said. When I’m able to do that, it’s a good feeling.” I got a pitch that usually ties me up inside and my hands were able to get there. “That’s what you work to – to be able to hit a strike in the zone no matter what it is. “My foot is getting down in time to where I can recognize a pitch in the zone,” he said. He started to feel good about the timing of that leg kick after some video study on the flight back from Seattle a week ago. Where Bogaerts was lunging at pitches, Napoli found himself unable to time his leg kick in a way that would allow his hands to get through the strike zone the way they have in the past. He’s homered five times in his last six games. Napoli hit a pair of home runs Saturday night, and he followed a Bogaerts single in the second inning Sunday with a titanic home run to straightaway center field. The last two weeks have seen both Bogaerts and Mike Napoli – a pair of hitters whose struggles contributed enormously for Boston’s team-wide scoring drought – get back to the feel and the swing they’ve been seeking. “The kid wants to be good – and he’s willing to put the work in to be good.” “Victor has been doing a lot of work with him on the low tee drill, some angled toss, getting him to stay on the ball a little better rather than taking his head to it,” Boston hitting coach Chili Davis said. 455 with two doubles and a home run in 23 plate appearances. It paid off in the seventh inning when Bogaerts went with an 0-2 fastball on the outside corner and lined it to right field for a two-run single – his first two-run hit since mid-April.īogaerts then followed that up with a four-hit game Sunday, his first four-hit game in six weeks. I was lunging at it, losing all my power.”īogaerts went right back to the cage midway through Saturday night’s game, enlisting assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez to throw him flips so he could work on keeping his head and hands back. “You have a few days where you stay behind the ball perfectly, and then, all of a sudden, you’re just throwing your upper body to the ball. “This is one thing I don’t understand about the game – where that comes from,” he said. Once I know I have a good feel for what I’m doing, I’m fine.”Īnd then the feeling evaporated Friday and Saturday, disappearing as quickly as it had arrived, leaving the second-year big-leaguer back where he’d started. “Sometimes you get tired of doing the same thing wrong, wrong, wrong,” he said. It took a day of focused work in the batting cage last week in Oakland for the work he’d been doing since the start of spring training to click – after which he slugged. The 22-year-old shortstop fell into a months-long slump that saw him consistently get his hands and head out in front of his feet as he anticipated pitches. BOSTON – After more than a week of feeling like himself again, feeling like he’d found his timing at the plate, Xander Bogaerts felt like he’d taken a step or two back.īogaerts spent the second half of last season and even the early part of this season fighting his own swing.
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