Zobrist's breakthrough is a great sign for Rays
www2.tbo.com
By Joe Henderson
April 30, 2011 -- It seems the Rays have a different hero every game, but that's how it is when things are going well. They get hits. They get great pitching. They get a wild pitch from the other team when they need one.
That's what happened Saturday afternoon at the Trop. Los Angeles reliever Fernando Rodney threw a two-strike pitch into the dirt and it bounced away as Matt Joyce sprinted home from third with the winning run. Unorthodox, sure, but there hasn't been a lot of normal associated with this team lately.
I mean that in a good way.
We take you back to Thursday in Minneapolis, near the end of the ZorillaFest. Rays third-base coach Tom Foley approached Ben Zobrist and grinned.
Zobrist had been playing like some sort of video game character during that day/night doubleheader, blasting doubles here and home runs there on his way to two homers and 10 RBIs. Laughing was about all anyone could do at that point.
"I told him, 'You know, what you just did today was about a month-and-a-half for me when I played.' Maybe. Every time he came up you felt like he was going to do something, and he did," Foley said. "I've never seen anything like that. I mean it."
Well, days like that haven't happened too often. And in his last six games before Saturday, Zobrist had 18 RBIs. The last two guys to do that were Reggie Jackson in 1969 and Sammy Sosa in 2002. Sosa may have had, um … assistance.
"It really was surreal," Zobrist said. "I was shaking my head at myself when I came back to the dugout after hitting another double. It just felt like I was going to get a pitch at some point I could handle and I would be able to do something with it. It was a huge confidence-builder.
"When the ball starts falling you go up there and feel like good things will happen. People talk about being in the zone – I was in the zone. I didn't want to give at-bats away during the day. I wasn't thinking about it; I was just going up and trying to have good at-bats."
Zobrist's story goes a lot deeper than just one blistering doubleheader. He has begun to resemble the player who busted out with 27 homers and 91 RBIs in 2009.
It earned him a four-year, $18 million contract. It also earned him a lot of extra scrutiny when he slumped to .238, 10 homers, and 75 RBIs a year ago. A lot of things went wrong, starting with an annoying neck injury. In trying to compensate, Zobrist got into bad habits at the plate that never seemed to quite get fixed.
"Something so small can really affect how you're playing, whether it's your neck, shoulder, your finger, whatever," Joyce said. "It's weird sometimes."
The contract was a factor, too.
"There's no question that when you're in a new position where you've got some security, you want to prove to yourself that I'm going to try and outdo this contract. You can't do that," Zobrist said.
"You put too much pressure on yourself and I definitely did that at first last year. As the year went on I don't think I did that, but all those bad habits carried over."
This isn't to say Zobrist is the sole reason for the Rays' rebound from a 1-8 start, not at all. Joyce had his second homer in two games Saturday. Johnny Damon is playing like a colt. B.J. Upton has been on a bit of a roll. Casey Kotchman has taken over at first base. And James Shields has been magnificent — as he was again in this game.
He took a shutout into the ninth but lost a chance at the win when our man Zobrist couldn't cleanly field a sharp grounder with Torii Hunter breaking for home. Zobrist recovered to get the out at first, but the tying run scored.
Stuff happens, but here's something to ponder.
One month into the season he already has seven home runs. And after a slow start, Zobrist is hitting .358 since April 10. If this is the Zobrist of 2009, that's a game-changer for the Rays.
"I'm still trying to get better every day. I'm swinging the same way I did in 2009. It's continual adjustments and the same thing doesn't always work twice," he said. "You continually make adjustments and do your best to put good at-bats together. That's what I've been doing." |
