In the midst of a seven-game hitting streak, Javier Baez offered up the cherry of a breakout game last night. He had four hits. Two of them were doubles. One of them was a homer. He did not strike out.
Coming into the game, Baez was hitting .178/.252/.341, which was, believe it or not, a huge improvement over where he stood just one week before that (.142/.229/.255 – yes, things had gotten quite grim).
After his 4-5 night with a couple doubles and a homer? He’s all the way up to .201/.270/.396. That’s an OPS improvement of 73 points, which underscores not only how huge his night was, but also how small the sample sizes still are. That line there would still be “disappointing” for Baez, but it’s no longer down in the “oh, dear God, what’s wrong with him?” range. It’s more like that “oh, he’s the youngest player in the PCL and he’s adjusting to some polished pitching, ok” range.
And, about that homer last night …
That’s a bomb, y’all.
One last important item to point out:
Since @BleacherNation came up with #BaezAfterDark, Baez is 8-16 with 5 doubles and 2 homeruns. Coincidence? I think not.
— Tyler (@RunningFlannel) May 23, 2014