Rasmus has a really good grasp of things, and he’s not letting go
If something is working, don’t change it.
That’s the reason Astros outfielder Colby Rasmus is sporting a colorful grip on his bat and is not wearing batting gloves.
He started using the grip last season — one in which he hit a career-high 25 homers and four in the playoffs — and decided to carry on this year.
And Rasmus, a lefthanded batter, is off to one of the hottest starts in his eight-year career and in Major League Baseball.
“I had good times with batting gloves. I had good moments, good streaks, and I hit well,” Rasmus, 29, said. “But right now, it’s just something that’s working for me, and it feels good.”
It was working in the ninth inning at Minute Maid Park on Sunday night when the Astros were down to their last out. That’s when Rasmus hit a game-tying two-run
homer off Boston Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel.
The homer was Rasmus’ seventh, tying him with Toronto’s Josh Donaldson for the American League lead.
Heading into Sunday’s game, Rasmus ranked second in the American League in on-base percentage (.449), slugging percentage (.698) and on base plus slugging (1.147). He was tied for second with 15 walks.
He never has had more home runs, RBIs or walks at this point in any season.
“The consistency of his strike-zone judgment has gotten better and better dating back to last year — through the end of the year and obviously into the playoffs,” manager A. J. Hinch said of Rasmus, who since Sept. 20, 2015, (regular season and playoffs), leads the big leagues in home runs (16) and OPS. “His command of his body in the batter’s box, controlling the strike zone, swinging at strikes, (and) doing damage on damage pitches has been remarkably consistent. That’s been very impressive.”
The major difference is the number of walks and quality at-bats Rasmus is putting together. He has reached base in all but two games this season, which includes coming in as a pinch hitter against Texas on Tuesday to earn a walk and score in the ninth.
Rasmus is swinging at fewer pitches while connecting more on the ones he swings at.
“He’s going up there every day ready to go and does what he does,” said first baseman Tyler White, who has moved up to fifth in the lineup and has been on deck for most of Rasmus’ production this season. “Even when he has tough days, he’s still got it up there. It’s just the pitch is not working his way or something is a little off, but he gets right back to it.”
That was the case Saturday when Rasmus swung and missed on two Clay Buchholz curveballs with the bases loaded in the fifth inning and the game tied.
A key factor to the Astros’ struggles in the first few weeks has been the team’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position. They left 10 on base and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position in Friday’s loss and started Saturday by leaving two men on in the first inning and another in the second.
Rasmus took advantage of his opportunity in the fifth, sending a 2-2 fastball into the right-field seats to ignite the offense and help stop a four-game skid.
“The schedule doesn’t get any easier because of one hit,” Hinch said. “But I do think it was a collective exhale for us to have one of our guys come through with runners in scoring position in a critical moment in the game where it changes the score. Colby can do that with the best of them.”
His approach is the same, but Rasmus has added mental preparation to his offseason regimen. That includes going back and reviewing the at-bats that were the most successful.
There were the three home runs he hit in two days against Arizona to end the regular season. And the second-inning solo homer against the New York Yankees that helped claim the American League wild-card berth. And the three he hit against Kansas City in the playoffs.
“Our minds are very strong,” Rasmus said. “I tried to do some things … to bring back those memories of those at-bats I had where I was locked in to try to put that forward to the season to help me get that same feeling.”