Credit big brother for hot streak
Do the eyes have it? Actually, Gurriel believes offseason drill at older sibling’s behest the key
BALTIMORE — First, a clarification.
“I want to reiterate,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said, “that he’s had his eyes open the whole time.”
Now, here’s an actual, two-part explanation for Yuli Gurriel’s absurd ascension.
The 35-year-old Astros first baseman has spent most of the last six weeks ascribing his success to “hitting with both eyes.” Gurriel’s eyes were never closed, nor was a visit to an optometrist required. He opened his batting stance at the behest of Carlos Beltran, the former Astro who now works as a special adviser to New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.
“If you get a little bit too turned away and you’re showing your back to the pitcher, your vision gets cut off a little bit,” Hinch explained.
But the foundation was built far before Beltran guided Gurriel at Yankee Stadium in June.
“I had to open up a little bit, my stance,” Gurriel said through an interpreter Friday. “And also, I’m just hitting the ball stronger.”
Gurriel’s gigantic leap started during the winter, when the first baseman and his younger brother, Lourdes, sought some help from their older sibling.
Though he played professionally in Cuba for many years and still works as a hitting coach, Yuniesky Gurriel, 37, never worked with Yuli “on the hitting side.”
In Miami this offseason, Yuniesky approached Yuli with an unorthodox idea involving weighted balls. Yuniesky thought flipping them in the batting cage would improve his brothers’ strength and hard-contact contact. Yuli had never tried the tactic but, ultimately, decided to give it a shot.
As Yuli tells it, Yuniesky flipped the weighted balls underhanded in the batting cage. The drill is usually done from a short distance with the one doing the flipping either seated on a bucket or behind a screen. It is common and done throughout the sport. Normally, it is done with a regulationsize baseball.
“Not sure exactly (how heavy the ball was), but it was very heavy,” Yuli said. “When you made contact with it, if you didn’t center the ball or barrel the ball, it would just go straight down. So you had to center it. You really had to barrel it.”
The brothers bashed the weighted balls daily.
“(Yuniesky) said that ‘Maybe in the beginning of the season, it will be a little more challenging. But, towards the end, you’ll see a lot more success,’ ” Yuli said. “I didn’t believe him at first, but, obviously, now we’re seeing results.”
Yuli captured American League Player of the Month honors in July and, on Wednesday, matched a single-game franchise record with eight RBIs. In the 71 games preceding the hot streak, Yuli slashed .258/.293/.389.
Since June 23, he has a 1.256 OPS. He entered Saturday’s matchup against Baltimore with 18 home runs and 11 doubles across his last 36 games.
In that span, Gurriel put 56 balls in play with an exit velocity harder than 95 mph. Thirty-three were hit 100 mph or harder. For reference, in the first 71 games, Gurriel had only 50 balls in play that were 100 mph or harder.
Has the weighted ball helped that much?
“Mucho, mucho, mucho,” Gurriel said. “I feel differently. I can make good contact with one hand and the ball jumps farther.”
A version of this story first appeared on txsportsnation.com, the Chronicle’s all-sports site. Sign up for the newsletter at chron.com/newsletters.